


At the Turning of Tides

by J_Flattermann



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Multi, apocalyptic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 17:47:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Flattermann/pseuds/J_Flattermann





	1. Introduction

22 July 2012 @ 09:40 pm

  
 For [](http://bluegerl.livejournal.com/profile)[ **bluegerl***](http://bluegerl.livejournal.com/) who asked about the "At the turning of tides" story

This is how I began. With the drawings to something like a comic strip. But I soon gave up as I wasn't happy with it. Especially as I wasn't able to catch the essence of what I wanted to achieve.

 

**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/227317.html#cutid1) )**

 

  
      
      
      
      
  
Started the different approach with painting those pictures in words instead. Which are now forming the first seven pictures of the story.

However, if you know someone in the comm who is skilled with painting, drawing comics, I'd like to see some based on my writing.


	2. Picture 1 to 4

21 July 2012 @ 12:59 pm

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Pictures 1 - 4)

_AT THE TURNING OF TIDES (WORD-PICTURES 1 - 4)  on Jul. 15th, 2012 at 7:41 PM posted in[](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/profile)[ **siritigram59**](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/)_

  
**At the Turning of Tides**   


(a very dark fic by J_Flattermann)

word count: 1,908  
rating: pg-15  
Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of[](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/) aka [](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/) **siritigram59**.

  
**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/225762.html#cutid1) )**

  


  
Picture 1   


The shutter of a camera opens slowly. Revealing a ruined metropolis in monochrome grey colours.

Skeletons of sky scrapers stretching their ruined fingers, hands, arms out, black against the dull grey sky. Black columns of smoke rise to the sky in the distance.

The camera shutter now fully open makes a slow 240 degree turn over the skyline of crumbling high rising buildings. Then lowers the view showing turned over cars and tanks, tarmac ruptured in heaps, dust and dirt swirling in tiny twisters along desolate alleys.

A man off camera sighs deeply in resignation. Then the camera shutter closes.

 

 

§§§§

 

Picture 2

Camera shutter opens again, very slowly. The first thing it shows is a sparsely furnished room. Concrete walls are bare. A naked light bulb produces the only light in the windowless room. The only furniture in the room is a bed, a chair and a small table. In the corners of the room in heaps or in run down shopping carts there is clothing, old newspapers. On a washing line crossing the room are photos hanging to dry after being developed.

A man off camera speaks to himself. “I hope they are not calling for me tonight.” He coughs a deep in the chest rumbling cough. The vibration of phlegm are heard in the noise of the lungs and his breathing wheezes for a while afterwards.

With a painfully aching sigh the man rises and so does the view of the camera. Showing small basement windows barred and covered with dark coloured metal lids. The man turns and the camera points towards a stack of old crumbling magazines. The topmost shows a black and white picture of the statue of Liberty as she crumbles into dust. The title reads “THE END OF THE WORLD”.

A wiry hand with long slim fingers picks the magazine up and leaves through. Pictures inside show famous buildings around the world being destroys or already shattered. The Taj Mahal with his famous dome fallen inside the building, the garden filled with bomb craters. London's house of Parliament and the falling St. Stephen's tower. Eiffel tower partially molten and dangerously swaying on one foot. The pyramids in Gizeh crumbled to the ground.

The hand picks up the next page. A new title “THIS IS THE END OF MAN KIND” it reads.

Photographs from outer space show the melting of the two polar caps. Stage by stage as the ice covered area shrinks the landmasses of the continents shrink the same.

The magazine is closed and flung back onto the stack. There is a sharp banging on a metal door.

Without emotion the man speaks “They call for me again. I bet it's the usual. I only hope that this time there is something left for me to do at all.” He sighs resignation again.

His feet shuffle over the concrete floor as he slowly walks to the door. He kills the light before opening.

The camera shutter closes.

 

 

§§§§

 

Picture 3

Shutter opens up to a dark alley between torn apart sky scrapers. Hurried foot fall echos through the empty street.

The face of another man comes into view. Eyes pale, tired looking, deeply sunken into the skull. Ashen coloured skin and sunken into hollow cheeks. Big bushy eyebrows and a scruffy beard covering most of the haughty looking face out of which the nose protrudes like a beak of a big bird.

“Hurry up, Doctor. Hurry.” The voice is as haughty as the slim figure now coming into full view as the man presses ahead. At the end of the alley the man turns right, heading for a complex with an archway leading into an inner courtyard.

The man dives into the archway waving hurriedly with his hand, motioning the man called “Doctor” to rush. The doctor looks up at the skeleton of the tall tower that stood there once before vanishing into the dark mouth of the entrance.

The passage is short, opening to a dark inner court. Overhead steal pillars are swaying dangerously in the breeze, making screeching sounds like carrion birds. “They chose the place well.” The doctor mutters to himself.

  
The man grabs him by his sleeve and pulls him to the left. They rush past the charred remains of what once was a proud tree, stretching his burnt branches against the sky as if in protestation or prayer.

The haughty man ushered the doctor before a blackened door. He knocks first twice, then thrice and then twice again. The door opens to a slid first and the haughty man whispers to his counterpart inside. The door then opens to the full revealing only a small space with another door at the back.

No light falls on the mens faces as the doctor and his companion enter the dark ante room. In side they stop knowing that the second door will not be opened until the first one has fallen firmly shut.

The second door opens to an empty room. On a hook by the door hangs an oil lamp. The old man who had opened the door fishes with his hand for the lamp but the haughty one takes it first. “Got it, dad.” He says softly to the old man and then takes the elderlies arm. The light of the lamp falls onto the face of the old man and reveals a large burn scar across the face in the region of the eyes. The old man is blind.

  
The two men show the way to a long corridor at the end there is a stair case and the three make their descend. At the bottom they follow the corridor below back into the direction they had come from only several stories above. The haughty man opens a door to a room which is clad with plaids by the door to prevent the light inside shine out. The three rush in and shut the door firmly behind them. The room is empty apart from a large desk in the middle. The ceiling lights throw a cold blueish light on the body of a woman on the table.

Puddles of blood are around it on the floor and still dripping from the table's surface.

The doctor sighs. Nothing new there.

He approaches the table and sees that the throat of the woman is slit as are her wrists. Test cuts prove that she has done it herself. The woman is highly pregnant and the movement of her belly alerts the doctor.

“The child ...” He gasps, “It's still alive.” The two men nod in unison. The doctor opens his bag hastily. If he rushes, he might be able to safe the child.

The camera shutter closes.

 

 

§§§§

 

Picture 4

The camera shutter opens to the doctor standing at his washing stand scrubbing his hands. The water in the bowl turns into a pinkish shade.

From the other side of the room two pairs of eyes are following the man's every move.

The doctor grins. “Nothing you two haven't seen before.” He said in a calm but warm tone. “What is for supper?”

The doctor smiles to himself as he hears the boys rushing around laying out the table and putting the food on it.

The older one is seventeen, the younger six. They are the only ones he managed to get out alive.

They are a patchwork kind of a family. The older boy with his honey-blond hair and the vivid green eyes. The woman had hung herself. Had hoped to kill herself and the child. The doctor had managed to rescue the baby. Had taken him with him. Had hidden him to make sure he wouldn't be destroyed.

  
The younger boy was tall for his six years. He had been the child of the woman the old and the haughty man had shown him. She had slit her wrists and throat. There had been nothing he had been able to do for her but the boy he saved. The old man had cried. Tears streaming out of his blind eyes. “My daughter. My beautiful daughter.” He had whimpered all the while. At first the doctor had thought the haughty man the husband, but it turned out that he was the woman's brother.

He had asked the two men if they wanted to take care of the baby boy but they both had shaken their heads. They had no means to look after the newborn. So he had asked for their allowance to take the child with him. Promised to look after the boy and see him grow.

Before he had left the shelter of the two men, the little bundle safely tucked away in his black leather coat, the man had spoken. “She always wanted to have a child. Hoped for a boy. But that was before ...” The man had broke up, swallowed hard against his tears. “She always said, she'd name him after father.” The doctor had looked up. “What's your father's name?” He had asked. “Karl Heinz.” The man had replied and the doctor had agreed to call the boy by that name.

  
The doctor turned around and away from his musings. The blond boy Sean was helping the little dark haired one Karl onto his chair, pushing him closer to the table. “That'll do.” He said and the dark haired head bobbed up and down in agreement.

“Sit down, Doc. Supper is ready.” Sean said. The old man smiled at the two young faces. But it was a sad smile.

The three ate in silence and the two boys crawled into their bed without much ado. Doc was washing up. His thoughts drifting off again.

He couldn't remember what had caused it all. He had run through all the newspapers and magazines he could lay his hands on. It seemed that there had not been any trouble with the natural resources. The spark that had brought the powder magazine to explosion had been an idealistic one. What he had filtered out of all the articles he had read was, that the war had started for religious reasons. Different ideologies that had caused a fraction between the peoples. Due to keeping their faces there had been no possibility of negotiations.

  
Mankind had almost extinguished himself. A few scientists in a secured bunker somewhere out in the nowhere had started to hunt down all the females they could find. Brought them into breeding camps. At first the scientists had been successful breeding more girls but after a while the first boys were born and then a while later the first mutations saw the light of day.

The scientists changed the routines and more and more of the girls they held were trying to run. Hunting parties were set up. Searching for the runaways and later as breeding became harder and harder they were hunting down hidden girls and woman of fertile age.

They kept only female offspring, male was destroyed.

The outcry had been lame, not much people left and the ones who had were too busy surviving.

The ruins of the metropolises offered shelter for the hunted. Doc wasn't one of the hunted at first but after he had been called to several cases where girls had tried to abort the forced pregnancy, he had turned against the so called “rulers” of the new world.

Doc sighed one of his heavy sighs before he killed the light and crawled in his own cod.

Shutter closes again.

 

TBC

 


	3. Picture 5 to 7

  


21 July 2012 @ 01:14 pm

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Pictures 5 - 7)

_AT THE TURNING OF TIDES (WORD-PICTURES 5 - 7)   on Jul. 17th, 2012 at 7:17 AM posted in[](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/profile)[ **siritigram59**](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/)._

 **At the Turning of Tides**

(a very dark fic by J_Flattermann)

word count: 1,908

rating: pg-15

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/) aka [](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/profile)[ **siritigram59**](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/).

 **([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/225829.html#cutid1) )**

  


Picture 5

Camera shutter opens.

The old doctor sits sunken at the table.

A tall dark haired young man enters through the door followed by a smaller stockier but clearly older blond haired man.  The two exchange glances.

“Is he still breathing, Karl?” The blond asks and the tall youth, who’d been spoken to turns to the speaker. “He’s still breathing, Sean.”

Both youngsters exchanged more looks filled with worry, before the younger lifted the frail old man up and carried him over to the bed. There he lowered the old man carefully before tucking him into the covers.

He straightened again and joined his ‘brother’ at the hob. “Everytime we come back, I’m afraid to find him dead.” The dark haired Karl whispered not to let the old man on the bed hear what he said.

Sean nodded. “He’s not eat’n properly too. He’s fallin’ apart.” 

A knock at the door had both young men jump. Doc was long out of business and there hadn’t been knocking to the door after dark in a long time.

Sean went for the gun and gave Karl a nod to confirm he was ready. Karl had taken up a pistol hiding it behind his back. He slowly moved the latch as Sean killed the dim light in the room.

Slowly the pistol hidden out of sight Karl opened the door and in pushed the plump face of an elderly woman. “Is Doc there?” She asked.

“He’s asleep, come back …” But the woman threw her weight against the door and pushed past Karl. 

“I have no time, Sweetie, need to speak to him now.” She insisted. 

Behind her four young men of different age and looks pressed through the door filling the small space.

Sean shrugged and put the gun away, whilst Karl closed the door and secured the pistol before shoving it back into his holster at the hip.

The two boys pulled out a chair for the woman and her four boys lined up behind her. Then Sean walked over to the bed and softly shook Doc by the shoulder, saying “Doc, wake up. Doc. You’ve got a visitor.” 

The old man on the cod moaned softly before rubbing his eyes. Sean had to help him sit up on the bed.

Leaning heavily on Sean the old man walked back to the table and sat down opposite of the old woman.

The camera shutter closes again.

 

§§§§

 

 

Picture 6  


Camera shutter stuttering opens then grinds to a halt halfway open.

“Throw that old thing away, Karl.” Sean’s voice can be heard. Karl protested claiming that the camera had been Doc’s.

Six young men were moving carefully within the ruins of the metropolis. They needed to move house. Find shelter before nightfall.

Doc had died the night before. They had left him in their old shelter on the bed. THey had sealed the room before they left. 

The old woman had cut a corner and vanished before they knew it. She had fallen behind and turned a different corner. Sean and Karl had teamed up with the four young men that now had been abandoned by the old woman, who had just several hours earlier claimed to be their grandmother. 

The old woman had told Doc shortly before the old man had closed his eyes forever, that she had used her four daughters as breeders. Had been selling the female babies her four girls at first had produced to the scientists. But it hadn’t taken long however and the first little boy was born. 

The old woman had pointed at the oldest of the four young men standing behind her chair. A young man with soft dreamy grey eyes and silky light brown hair. The first boy child had been baptized Viggo Peter but soon refused to listen to the name Pete but insisted to be called Viggo.

The other three boys were of the other daughters. They were called Craig, William or as he preferred Billy and Dominic, who listened to the brief Dom.

Finding a room for six could prove to be difficult. 

There were several requirements which the shelter had to provide. Small easy to cover up or preferably no windows at all was one criteria. A double door passage to block out the light from insight. A luxury would be if it had a hidden second entrance which could be used as an escape route. However Sean knew that their sector of Metropolis had nothing like it on offer.

But Sean wasn’t so sure they would find anything at all in this sector or any other considering that now it had to accommodate six youngsters still growing.

However Viggo, who was a few months older than Sean and therefore the oldest of them all insisted that he knew a place in a sector further away. Nevertheless crossing sectors was a dangerous undertaking and Sean was not very happy about it.

He spoke with Karl about it. “We don’t know this other sector and we don’t really know these guys. What if we are running into trouble there?” Karl despite being eleven years younger than Sean had alway be the more level headed one. Especially as Sean could have quite some fits of temper. “You do know that they are still hunting people like us down?” Sean added.

Karl stared down at his booted feet, something he used to do when thinking deeply.

“We know our sector in and out, don’t we?” The warm brown eyes held the gaze of the bright green and Sean felt a warmth welling up inside him. This boy or rather young man, as Karl clearly towered over Sean by now, was the closest thing to family Sean ever had experienced. Even though Doc had never lied to them and so both had learnt early that they were not related to each other nor to Doc, the bond between the two had always a brotherly feel to it. Just like they both had looked at Doc as if he was their father.

“You know as well,” Karl carried on giving Sean a startle as he came out of his musing. “there is no shelter big enough for us all. Not here. Not in our sector. You know it, I know it.” Karl raised his eyebrow to stress the last words. “Maybe it’s time for us to move on.”

“But we don’t know these guys.” Sean tried again, but Karl only shrugged.

“I think we should take our chances.” He said and with a look back at the two youngest cousins Dom and Billy who were just instructed by Craig how to defend themselves, Karl added. “I can’t see him [there he pointed his thumb over his should in Viggo’s direction] risking his cousin’s lives. Unlike us, these are all related.”

Sean blushed. “You know I would never …” He didn’t got further for Karl had his arm flung around his shoulder and laughing said. “I know. We are thicker than blood.”  Sean smiled back a bit sheepishly. Sometimes he wondered where his younger ‘sibling’ took his calm confidence from.  Thinking back, he couldn’t remember once that he had felt that Karl was a hindrance. Even as a small boy, Karl had always been reliable and trustworthy.

Camera shutter rattles and wiggles a little but neither closes nor opens further.

 

§§§§

 

 

Picture 7  


The camera is stuffed into a backpack together with several magazines and books on medicine.

“Why are you carrying all this rubbish around with you?” Dom asks and Billy moves close to his cousin poking his nose into Karl’s backpack. “Isn’t that heavy to carry? Those books and the broken camera.”

Both youngsters look at the tall dark haired young man who is almost of the same age.  For most of the way Billy and Dom had been entering a moaning competition and dawdled behind. With the excuse of the heavy backpack Karl too had fallen back, to make sure that the two wouldn’t be left behind.

But he soon learnt that this wasn’t entirely necessary as Craig and Viggo kept a close eye on the two throughout their march through the sector. Viggo had even pulled them back into the formation once when they came to a dangerous looking spot. And during the crossing Craig hadn’t left the side of the two until they had passed safely.

Sean, who had dubbed the two cousins ‘the Siamese Twins’ had the easier task with Karl being on the alert all the time, he needn’t to constantly watch out for his younger ‘brother’. Billy and Dom however seemed to enjoy the attention and were keen on making as much trouble as they cared for. Karl and Sean watched on with astonishment as Craig sometimes would roll his eyes and Viggo just sigh deeply, but neither of them ever lost their temper with the two troublemakers.

Now that two thirds of the day had gone Sean grew restless. It was about time that they were looking for a shelter for the night. At least to his humble opinion. However, Viggo didn’t seemed to be inclined to search for a place to make camp but rather pressed on towards the close by border of their sector.

Finally as the light faded Sean couldn’t hold back anymore. “Hey, You! Viggo! We should find a place to stay for the night.” He shouted out as Viggo paced ahead in large strides.

The call out made the young man stop and turn.

“What’sup?” Viggo said throwing a challenging glance Sean’s direction. “I said,” Sean repeated teasingly slow, “we should find a place to stay for the night.” 

Viggo shook his head in negation. “Nah! We’re too close to the sector border. We should make a run for it now.” He replied instead.

“I wasn’t thinking for me or my brother, but rather for your Siamese Twins.” Sean said pointing further into the distance were Billy, Dom and finally Karl appeared climbing over the rubble of broken walls. 

Viggo smirked and then calmly said “It’s your brother that is in the rear.” Sean grew all red faced and was about to explode. “He’s in the rear because your no-good-cousins are dawdling about and he’s looking out for them.” Sean kicked a pebble with the toe of his boot. “Karl and I are all right. We don’t need you. We’ll going to go for a shelter somewhere. What you and your crazy cousins are doing is not our concern.” 

Just then Craig arrived slightly hot and bothered with carrying not only his own pack but also the ones of Dom and Billy. The two had started to complain about the weight of the packs and good natured Craig had taken them off them, now burdened down with the triple of the load he was told to carry.  He exchange looks with Viggo and Sean and dropped his ballast onto the ground with a sigh of relief. Before he straightened up again and asking “What’s the matter? Are you having an argument?” 

“Who’s having an argument?” Karl’s deep voice came out of the now dark and just then the Siamese Twins came running towards the streetcorner all excited and of course full of energy as they had used Craig as their mule.

“No argument.” Sean said steady voiced, turning to Karl. “We are going for shelter now, brother. Don’t want to be caught out in the curfew. Let’s go.” Karl was baffled. “But … Sean? What about them?” 

“Their big chief and master of command has decided to ignore the curfew and move on over the sector border by night. Well, Good Luck, that’s all I have to say to that.” Sean said with sarcasm in his voice and groping for Karl’s arm pulled his younger sibling away towards the outline of a row of buildings which possibly could provide shelter for the night.

The camera remains buried in the darkness of the backpack.

  


[](https://sites.google.com/site/middleversearchives/middleverse-archives/siritigram56-stories/at-turning-of-tides/attot---picture-5---7/billy-dom.jpg?attredirects=0)

  


Picture is copyright of friend [](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/profile)[ **raven22372**](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/). Please do not copy without her permission.

  
TBC

 


	4. Picture 8 and 9

25 July 2012 @ 01:17 am

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Pictures 8 - 9)

**At the Turning of Tides**

(a very dark fic by J_Flattermann)

word count: 1,908

rating: pg-15

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)  


 

**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/227577.html#cutid1) )**

  


PIcture 8

Bright light and coloured blotches all out of focus.

The bits and pieces of the camera all laid out in an orderly fashion on a cloth on the floor. Karl sitting crossed legged before them putting them back into place after a thorough cleaning with a cloth.

Dom and Billy were sitting opposite, staring in awe, watching the tall dark haired youngster as he gently and steady handed puts the camera back together.

“How does he know which part belongs where?” Billy asked his cousin. 

Dom just shrugged.

“I have watched him taking it apart and I can't say with goes where!” 

Karl very much trying to ignore the banter of the two, can't help the slight twitching of the corners of his mouth. 

But then calls himself mentally to order and continues to concentrate on the work at hand. He had placed each part in the direct order he had taken it out of the camera and now after having cleaned and oiled them carefully all he needed to do is retracing his steps.

A sudden loud whirring noise overhead had the “Siamese Twins” first jump and then huddle close together. Karl instinctively ducked his head looking up at the ceiling.

The whirring of the helicopter's rotor blades came closer until it hovers over them for what seemed endless.

The noise tearing on their nerves Sean reached out for the oil lamp and dimmed the light. Craig and Viggo started to check on the black-out devices they had arranged for doors and windows.

With the helicopter seemingly standing in the air above their shelter the six young men held their breaths. They waited with held breaths assuming that any minute the doors would be kicked open.

Each of them was well aware that just now a bright beam of light was gliding over the grounds outside to catch every living being that moved. Furthermore they feared that they had been under surveillance and that the shelter would not prove to be safe at all.

What was just minutes seemed to last an eternity for the six. They all blew their relief when the helicopter finally moved on.

When Sean after a couple of minutes later turned the light on full again they all started to giggle as a vent to the tension they had felt just moments ago.

Karl turned his attention back to the camera. With quick but steady hands the last few pieces were falling into place. 

He lifted the camera to his eye when a movement at the other end of the room caught his attention.

The grid in the viewer showed Sean and Viggo shaking hands, as Viggo had to confess that Sean's notion to seek shelter had proven to be the right decision to make.

Cli-cli-click click.

The camera made a small noise as the shutter fell close again.

 

§§§§

 

Picture 9

The camera shutter opened reveiling a very angry faced Sean mouthing “Where the hell have you been?” Before the sound even hit Karl's eardrums.

They had left their shelter in their old sector and crossed over the border into a new one shortly before breaking of day. They had made slow progress in tis strange and foreign territory. The whole thing felt strange, the sector of the metropolis unfamiliar and alien. 

Around noon Billy had stepped onto a large shard of glass that had pierced through his shoe into his foot.

They had looked for a shelter immediately after, with Karl making good use of the medication and Doc's teaching to tend to Billy's injury there on the spot. But Billy couldn't move on. They had to take cover.

In the end Sean and Viggo had managed to agree to something and called it a day afer a shelter was found.

Viggo and Craig had formed a seat from their wrists and hands for Billy to sit on as they carried him into their new home for the night.

They had planned to move on early next morning. However Billy had developed a fever over night and despite Karl's best efforts that ground all plans to a halt. 

Two days Karl had applied meds and changed the bandage after removing the large shard. He wrapped cold damp rags around the youngster's legs to bring the fever down.

“He needs a shot agains blood poisoning. And I neither have syringes nor the vaccine.” Karl had said. The situation had gone serious and not only could Billy lose a limp but also his life Karl proclaimed. The others apart from Sean had stared at him in a “what do you know” fashion. But Karl had produced his medicine books from his backpack and shown the cousins the symptoms of blood poisoning and pointed out the rash already forming on Billy's foot.

On day three their supplies in medication was melted down to one single painkiller tablet.

“I'll have to go and snoop around a little.” Karl had declared very much to the annoyance of his 'brother'. “I'll have to see if I can find some meds and other useful stuff. You can't help me with that as you don't know what to look for. I have to do that myself.”

Sean who had been the addressee of the latter part of the speech had urged him to be back before the night fell and in his fear had made Karl swear.

However the day drew to a close with curfew only minutes away and there was no sight of Karl. They young man hadn't returned.

Sean stood in the doorway of their shelter staring out into the growing shadows.

“This will not bring him back. It's time!” Viggo had to drag him in by force and bar the door.

With Craig's help the shelter was blacked out again. 

All evening Sean jumped at the slightest of noises from outside, rushing to the door only to be prevented by Viggo or Craig to rush out. But the relieving knock to the door never came that night.

So when Karl finally showed up next morning way after sun rise he was greeted by a furious Sean who raged at him with a cavalcade of swear words and accusations.

Karl took it as a man with a small smile and after breakfast revealed the treasures he had managed to scavenge.

The shutter of the camera closed on Sean's still angry distorted face.

  


TBC

 


	5. Picture 10 and 11

01 August 2012 @ 01:39 pm

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Pictures 10 - 11)

**At the Turning of Tides**

(a very dark fic by J_Flattermann)

word count: 1,465

rating: pg-15

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)  


**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/228620.html#cutid1) )**

  


Picture 10

Camera shutter opens to four pairs of staring eyes, four gaping mouth and flabbergasted young men. Their stare went past the tall dark haired Karl who sported a confident grin.

Just behind the young man's shoulder partially covered there stood a young girl. The already protruding belly gave away her condition.

From inside the shelter Billy, sensing the tension, could be heard calling out to Dom. “What's it? What's going on? Dom? DOM! Why are you not answering? What's up?” The other half of the “Siamese Twins” turned and yelled back.

“Yeah, Karl's back. He's brought a visitor.”

“A visitor? WHO? DOM? TALK TO ME!”

Viggo was the first to come to his senses asking Karl to get the girl to come in. As soon as all were back inside the shelter Karl introduced the girl to his still gobsmacked friends. “This is Alia.” He said, “She's not going to stay.” The second announcement made some of the boys smirk. However what followed then caused an uproar of disapproval.

“I shall take her to your grandmother.” Karl told Viggo.

Sean who had stood by without a word but stone faced stamped his foot. “THE HELL YOU DO!”

However Karl was neither shaken nor stirred. He had his mind set and none of Sean outburst could make him change his mind.

Viggo knowing Karl pretty well by now, stood by grinning, seeing that Sean who had stormed off and even though without any further comment, he was boiling up with anger deep down inside. Taking Karl to the side Viggo enquired after Karl's plans. Karl replied with a calm and steady voice, loud enough for Sean who was standing in the door to overhear each word. “She came upon me by chance while I was searching an abandoned pharmacy. I think she was looking for some medication but I couldn't get her to tell me what she was after. In her condition I couldn't just leave her behind, could I. I wouldn't be Doc's son, if I'm not going to try at least to help her. I have no experience with pregnancies only with victims of abortions. Doc were taking me to assist him. But your Nan Viggo, she knows. She's helped all your mothers with your births.” Karl pointed out in a circle at all the cousins in the room.

In the doorway Sean growled. He knew that he had nothing to add for Karl's reasoning had been very clear.

During all this rowing and shouting the girl had sat quiet as a mouse and very pale, trembling all over at the table. Karl noticed and walked over placing his hand softly on her should lowered himself to look into her face. “Don't be afraid.” He said softly, “Everything will turn out all right. You'll see.” Then he got up again and turned again towards Viggo. “You haven't told me about the whereabouts of you Nan yet.” He insisted to know.

Sean re-entered the room and walked past Karl and Viggo his gaze fixed on Craig. Over the last couple of days Karl had noticed that his older brother had taken a liking to the young man. He had learnt early on that Sean was rather more interested in men than women, but as Doc never had made a mention he had thought this to be a normality. Especially in a world where women were sparse.

The encounter with the young pregnant girl was rather a rare event. For if the women weren't all routed up and deported into special breeding facilities, they must be either runaways or in hiding. This meant of course that all “free” women would be careful to show themselves to any strangers.

It also explained why the girl was quiet and afraid, not knowing if those young men would turn her in.

Karl's voice suddenly cut through the room loud and forceful. “Now, where do I find your grandmother? And don't give me that crabshit like I DON’T KNOW! I know you know. So where is her favourite hideout? Spill it, Viggo!”

A small squeal of pain escaped Sean. He knew that his little brother was determined to cross back into their old sector to find the old hag that had proved to be so treacherous.

The problem was that Viggo's Nan could be anywhere. Sean seriously doubted that Viggo could surely determine her whereabouts.

However knowing Karl from the day Doc had brought the newborn home, he was well aware that his younger ‘sibling’ would not be swayed but take every risk necessary to get the girl to the old woman, who was the only person they knew to know what was to do.

Before Karl and the girl prepared leaving Dom was instructed how to deal with Billy’s injury.

Karl promised sincerely that he would be back before nightfall as the named shelter where the old woman should be wasn’t too far over the sector border. 

“I’ll be back for sure. If you’re certain that your Nan is there, then that’s good. Not too far to go.” He had said to Viggo and in a way to Sean as well. Sean, who pretended not to be interested and instead had taken up his game of watching Craig closely under half closed eyelids.

Karl had noticed that of late Sean was eyeing the young man and knowing his “brother” only too well knew that Sean had obviously taken a liking. Of course he would have denied if asked, for it was still early days.

When Karl took up his pack Sean couldn’t help himself but had to ask “What if she’s not there?”

Viggo shook his head convinced that she would and Karl only shrugged.

“We wait for your return!” Viggo confirmed.

The camera shutter closed on the five mates standing in the door of the shelter. Billy supported by Dom. Four hands waving only Sean pulling a face. Before the shutter snaps close there is a swerve of the camera to Karl and the girl climbing over the house’s debris until they are out of sight.

 

§§§§

 

Picture 11

The shutter opens again to a dark bare cell. Karl moans softly as he wakes. It takes him some time to figure out where he is. 

Then, suddenly, all comes back to him.

His travel with the girl in search for the old woman. The crossing back into his ‘home’ sector had been fairly easy despite the girl’s condition.

He had taken Viggo’s word and made it straight to the named place. As it turned out Viggo had not only spoken the truth but also had been right in his instincts. For Karl found her exactly where Viggo had said she would be.

Karl had been glad because his travel companion was quite pale and shaky. He and the old woman had helped her to bed after their arrival.

He remembers that the old woman had asked him to get some meds from the convenient store just a few blocks away. Knowing his old quarters well enough he hadn’t trouble to find the place.

Arriving back at the old woman’s shelter he had had a strange feeling in his gut as if something was not quite right. However he couldn’t place his finger on it.

Pushing the thought aside he had entered and been hit over the head.

Now lying in the dark on a concrete floor hurting, he remembered that Craig had pulled him aside just shortly before he had left. Craig had warned him that the old woman could not be trusted.

“She’d given us all up hadn’t we been family. She said so herself several times.” Craig had asked him not to trust her and to keep his eyes open. Now he wished he had listened.

From a crack in the walls high above him there came in a small beam of light. He tried to figure out what time it might be. He couldn’t say how long he had been unconscious. Had a night passed already? If so, then Sean and the boys might know that something had happened.

He suddenly groaned. DAMN!

He had forgotten that the last time he had ventured out and come late despite his promise to be back before nightfall. They would expect him to show up the next day or wait even longer.

No, he had to find a way out of here. Wherever here was.

He groaned again as his stomach suddenly upheaved and he managed to crawl into a corner of the room before he violently vomitted.

The camera shuts over a rolled up Karl lying in the corner of the cell he’s been locked up in.

§§§§

  


tbc

 


	6. Picture 12

 

22 August 2012 @ 01:18 am

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Picture 12)

 

 

At the Turning of Tides

(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[**j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 2,247

rating: pg-15

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[**j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)

**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/231546.html#cutid1) )**

 

  
Picture 12

Shutter of the camera opens. In the visor are the worried faces of Viggo and Sean. They are bending over an unidentifiable form hunched in the shadows.

 

The two eldest of the group had waited for two days and nights for Karl’s return.  
On Craig’s pressing demands they finally had agreed upon to leave Billy in Dom’s care whilst the three of them would go after Karl.  
The first point of their search had to be of course the hideout of Viggo and Craig’s grandmother. However that bird had flown.

 

The demolition of the place however to a story clear enough to even be read by Sean who unlike Craig and Viggo was not trained in tracking and orienting. At least not to such a high standard as especially displayed by the youngest of the three.  
Craig simply had to have a quick look.

 

“He’s been ambushed.” He declared, “I bet granny had her dirty fingers in this.”  
Viggo just nodded while Sean clenched his fists in anger digging his fingernails so deep into his palms that they almost drew blood.  
He only relaxed when Craig’s hand landed on his shoulder and the younger man confirmed “We’re going to find him. No worries! We get him out of there.”  
“Yeah,” growled Sean, “where ever THERE is.”  
“We'll find him.” Viggo affirmed but Sean wasn't convinced.

 

Craig soon pointed out a trail of blood drops which he assumed to be Karl's. This announcement did nothing to calm down a worried over the top Sean.  
The trail of blood drops stopped at the street corner. A fact that made Sean almost going ballistic. “How are we going to find him now?” He yelled.  
However their investigations hadn't gone unobserved and soon they found themselves surrounded.

 

The group of people closing in on the three young men soon recognised Viggo and Craig as the boys that had been living there with the old woman, who now had left the place for good.

 

Craig soon started to interrogate the people about what they had witnessed. Sean stood by but didn't really grasped what these questions would lead to or how they should help to find his missing sibling.  
Still Craig and Viggo both seemed to be satisfied with what they had heard.

 

As the group of people dispersed as fast as they had gathered, Viggo turned to Sean.  
“We need a vehicle.” He said, “Something sturdy, that can take a blow or two.”  
“Great!” Sean exclaimed, “And where do you think we find such a thing?”  
The two were interrupted by a sharp whistle and turning towards the direction on the note they spied Craig standing at the end of the road beckoning them to join him.

 

When they reached Craig he pointed out a heap of abandoned cars with an armoured vehicle on caterpillars on top of the heap.  
“This one is in good condition. However, I’ve check it is in need of petrol. We have to fill the tank first.” Craig explained.  
“Do you know how to run this thing?” Viggo asked his cousin.  
“I know,” Sean cut in, “but first let us fill that tank.”  
Sean looked around to find something to hold the gasoline he was planning to pump out of the wrecked cars lying around.  
Some copper pipe in the rubble was used to suck the petrol from the car’s tank into a bucket. Craig and Viggo were filling the tank whilst Sean was emptying the ones of the cars in the heap.  
“Be careful not to spill too much.” Viggo warned Craig. But the young man’s hands were steady.  
As soon as the vehicle’s tank was filled the three discovered that they had still quite an amount of petrol left. So Craig and Viggo went scavenging through the demolition site and the wrecked cars. Viggo struck gold when he found a canister in one of the cars. There were some dents in the metal hull but no holes and so they filled the rest of the petrol in and chucked the canister into the armoured vehicle.

 

It took Sean two times to get the engine started but as soon as the motor was running he carfully stirred the van down from the heap and onto the road.  
“OK. Where to now?” He asked his two fellow rescuers.  
Craig pulled a piece of paper from under his shirt and started to unfold it.  
To Sean’s great astonishment it was a map not only of their old sector but also of all the other sectors of the Metropolis.

 

“Their HQ is there.” The young man said, pointing out a building on the map at the other end of the sector they were in.  
“How do you know? And how do you know that Karl is there?” Sean wondered but Viggo placed his arm around his shoulders and said “Trust us. He’s there.”  
So Sean slammed the first gear in and slowly they turned the van around and drove off in the direction pointed out by Craig.

 

At first Sean had been afraid to drive faster as he feared they would attract too much attention. But Viggo and Craig had urged him to drive faster as they were losing the daylight fast. So Sean kicked the van into highest gear and they sped along the empty streets.  
Shortly before the hit the corner to lead them into the road leading up to the building where Craig assured Karl was being held, Viggo asked Sean to stop.  
“I’m going out and have a look around first. If they see us approach they will be warned. I want to make sure we know with how many of them we are dealing with.” He said before sliding through the broken rear window.

 

A few minutes later Viggo reappeared. “Seems we’re in luck.” He said, “There is nobody to be seen. Seems they are out hunting.”  
“I only hope Dom and Billy are save.” Craig uttered. “They’ll be fine as long as they keep their heads inside the shelter.” Sean answered with a small smile hoping to calm the worries in the young man. Viggo nodded his accord and added. “They are smart boys, Craig. They’re fine. You’ll see as soon as we’re back.”

 

“You said, you haven’t seen anybody in and about the building.” Sean changed the topic back to the task that lay at hand. Viggo nodded again. “Could be a trap.” Sean mused.  
“Could be.” Viggo confirmed, “But we have to take that risk if we want to get Karl out of there.”  
Driving the vehicle up on an parallel running sideroad they managed to get closer without being spied. Finally Sean parked the van and they got out and ran the few yard until they reached a large barracks complex surrounded by walls topped with barbed wire and cameras.  
Sean stopped dead at the sight of the cameras. “Fuck it.” He growled and the two cousins came running over to find out what the problem was. “Cameras.” Sean pointed out.  
“They are useless without energy.” Craig said and Sean could have kicked himself that he hadn’t thought of it. Of course the energy was down for many years and even an emergency energy supply must have run out by now.  
However Sean went for a test and stepping into the camera’s focus moved around a bit. But the camera was frozen on the spot and didn’t followed his movements.

 

“Come along this way.” Viggo said and led on. “I’ve found a way in.”  
The two, Craig and Sean followed on his heels. A few yards away the wall had been breached and the bricks had crumbled away into the street. The barbed wire even though hanging a little lower than on the rest of the wall was no obstacle for the three young men as they crawled over the loose bricks.  
On the other side the youngsters made a dash over the ground which offered no place to hide until they reached the wall of the building.  
“OK. What now?” Craig asked his cousin.  
But Viggo simply pointed out that they should split up and that he himself would make a dash for the main entrance, whilst Sean and Craig should try one of the lower windows around the building.

 

“How shall we inform each other when one of us has found Karl?” Sean wanted to know but Craig grinned and pulled out of his backpack some baby monitors. “These things are working just like walkie-talkies.” He explained.  
“Where did you get these from?” Viggo wondered.  
“They were in gran’s hideaway. There were lots of them in a big box. I took some. Thought they might come handy. I checked them first. With these the batteries are still working but I can’t say for how long. So use them only when necessary.”

 

With a slap on the back for encouragement Viggo left Sean and Craig to crawl around the building in hope to find an open window to enter. He himself ran in a lowered position under the windows straight up towards the main entrance.  
If there were guards somewhere inside, he expected them to be there by the main door. He only hoped that the door wouldn’t be locked.  
But when he reached the door it’s wasn’t only unlocked but also gaping open.  
Cautiously Viggo sneaked inside hiding behind some columns first until he reached a reception desk. On the desk were installed monitors but each and everyone was black. However in a cupboard behind the desk Viggo found a key cabinet holding lots of keys. So he emptied the entire cabinet shoving the keys into his pants pockets.

 

Meanwhile Sean and Craig had found a window to crawl in. However it wasn’t one to the rooms on the ground floor but rather into one of the cellars.  
“What if we can’t get anywhere from there?” Craig wondered but Sean lowered himself inside and after a few minutes whispered to Craig to follow as the way was free for them to go.

 

The three of them must have been inside the building roaming around for half an hour when they stumbled across each other again. So far their search hadn’t been successful.  
“Where would you put a prisoner away?” Craig mused and all three in unison said “Dungeons.”  
So they made their way back downstairs again.  
At the end of the cellar Craig and Sean had used to enter there was a locked metal door.  
“Well, that’s it then.” Sean said slumping himself on the ground but Viggo grinned, producing the keys he had collected earlier.  
Soon they all sat next to a bunch of keys trying each and every until Sean found a fitting one.  
The door was extremely heavy and moved weary on the hinges. It took all three of them to force it open enough for them to squeeze in.

 

They felt their way along the walls of a dark, long corridor at whose end another metal door barred their way. Sean tried his key again and strangely enough it fitted well.  
“Now that is what I call luck.” Viggo smirked.

 

This door had to be pushed rather then pulled and it moved with much more ease. Behind the door was a landing to a staircase which was illuminated by small oil lamps. The stair was leading further below underground. The three followed the stair downward until they reached the end.  
There two corridors led away, one to the left the other right. Again they split up with Viggo taking the right corridor and the other two the left.

 

Viggo’s corridor didn’t run long but ended in another stair leading down again. Before he used the stair he groped for the baby monitor and pushing the button told Craig and Sean that he had found a stair and would follow it down.  
With crackling disturbances the voices of the two came out of the speaker saying that they had discovered utility rooms only. One of them had been used recently according to Craig’s explanations.

 

It was agreed that Viggo should wait until the two would have meet up with him again. Reunited the young men made their way down the flight of stairs only to find one large corridor which had a set of doors at each side.  
Testing the first doors to the left and right they found them locked. Viggo inspected the locks in the light of a match and then pulled another set of keys out of his pockets. “It should be one of these.” He said testing them against the first of the doors.

 

They only made slow progress even though they split up the keys again and each one of them were probing them in the rows of doors. After what seemed to have taken ages they finally managed to open one door after the other.

 

Behind the second door to the last on the left hand side they found the rolled up figure of the unconscious Karl. Worried if he was still breathing Sean and Viggo bent over him to feel his breath and a pulse. Their faces lit up in a smile and they nodded when they established that he indeed is still alive.  
And the shutter snaps close.

  
[](https://sites.google.com/site/middleversearchives/middleverse-archives/siritigram56-stories/at-turning-of-tides/05-attot---picture-12/viggo-sean.jpg?attredirects=0)Picture is copyright of friend [](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/profile) **raven22372**. Please do not copy without her permission.

 

Tbc

 


	7. Picture 13

At the Turning of Tides

 

(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[j_flattermann](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 1,856

rating: NC-17

warning: torture and rape

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[j_flattermann](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)

**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/231885.html#cutid1) )**

 

  
Picture 13

The shutter of the camera opens slowly to a dark cell made entirely of concrete.

Soft moans and stifled sobs fill the room as well as the smell of blood and feces. Karl lies in a corner stark naked and covered in blood.  
Behind him the door slams close and two male voices can be heard laughing and joking.  
Karl lies still not daring to move until the echoes of the footsteps faint and die.

He reaches at his rectum and when he withdraws his hand it is full of dark blood. Then he faints.

Hours earlier after a restless night, four men had enter the cell Karl had been chucked in and after giving him a heavy beating drag him out along a long corridor and down a flight of stairs.  
They fling him into some sort of a communal shower room and one bellows at him that he should undress and get ready to take a shower.  
Karl shudders at the thought for it reminds him of what he had read in one of the history books in Doc’s possession. They’ll kill you, is repeating itself over and over in his mind.  
As he shows no sign of getting undressed the four guys approach him again. This time they pull out their batons and they begin to thrash them down on him hitting head, shoulders, arms, his ribs and especially his hips and legs.  
Finally his legs give in and he falls to the ground.

They enter the room and rip his clothes off his body, dragging him under one of the showers and soon ice cold water is pouring down on him making him flinch but clearing his head as well.  
He’s covered in goosebumps and his lips and skin have a blueish tint from the cold when the men come back. One grabs him by his hair and pulls him away from the shower.  
Karl’s hands are raised quickly as he has the feeling his scalp is ripped off.  
The men laugh and one kicks Karl in the abdomen.

The men are making dirty jokes about him whilst he is dragged by his hair into an office like room with a chair and a desk. The men let him drop there on the floor hitting and kicking him several times before they leave the room.

One of the kicks hits him right in the face and Karl spits out blood and two of his molars. He knows that they have broken his nose and he fears from how painful breathing is that some of his ribs might have gone too.  
The taste of blood in his mouth makes him gag and his stomach heaves in a very painful manner. He desperately tries to calm himself to make breathing less hurting.  
The door to the office opens and in step two men wearing military boots. That’s all Karl can see with his eyes beginning to swell close.  
Again he is lifted up by the hairs on his head. Whilst the second man kicks his boots into Karl’s kidneys. Karl bites down on his left cheek to stop the whimper that’s building up in his throat.

“Where is the rest of your troop?” The hair grabber asks and shakes him. Karl tries to get a hold of the man’s arm to ease the pull on his hair. But every time he reaches up the second man kicks him. Suddenly all turns black.

Karl wakes with a start as cold water is splashed into his face and over his body. He coughs as the water enters mouth and nose.  
He is still coughing when two men grab him under his arms and dragging him out of the room. He finds that he can’t move his legs and so his heels are scraping over the floors of the corridors he’s dragged along and fall with a painful bump onto each step as they are descending another set of stairs.

Naked as he is he is thrown into a dark and damp cell. They drop him onto the concrete floor and before they leave he receives another set of kicks. He rolls up like a ball, his arms over his face and head to protect himself. The men laugh and finally leave throwing the metal door shut with a loud bang.

Karl doesn’t know whether it is day or night. It seems to him like only minutes went past before the door opens again and he is pulled out onto the corridor.  
He tries to walk and every time he seems to find his feet a heavy boot is kicking him in the back of his knees.  
Karl chews on his cheeks and lips not to cry out in pain. This time they are dragging him straight to another office. This room is completely empty apart from a pair of handcuffs dangling from the ceiling. The men pull him up and with a metallic click the cuffs shut around his wrists.  
Karl tries to stand on tiptoes to avoid the pull in his arms but again the boots find the back of his knees.

Every kick is accompanied by a roar of mean laughter. Then a man appears before Karl waving a large knife. He laughs and cuts Karl over the chest until rivulets of blood are running. He then circles Karl’s nipples as if to cut them out. Karl bits his lips but soon passes out again.

He wakes with his head dumped into a bucket of cold water. He gasps for air as he is pulled out by his hair. Questions are asked but he can’t make any sense of the words and so his head is dunked back into the bucket.  
They are holding him down until his lungs burn and feel like bursting. The men laugh when he gasps for air each time they pull him up. The procedure is repeated ten times and then they drag him back to the cuffs.  
He flinches as the metal clasp of a leather belt makes contact with his shoulder blades. They are whipping him until his back is bloodied and raw. He blacks out again.

Karl wakes lying on the cold floor in his cell. He weeps silently and prays to die. Let me die, just let me die now. His brain is repeating the wish.  
He must have blacked out again, cause he is shaken violently and dragged out of the cell again.  
No more, please. He silently pleads. No more.

They are kicking and hitting him all along the way through the corridors. Half of the way he is out. He comes to, finding himself in that first office again. The one with the desk and the chair. They are lashing out with their belts and one guy starts to singe his arms and legs with his cigarette.  
The door opens and a harsh voice demands the men to leave.  
They all stumble outside, whispering words Karl can’t comprehend. He seems to have lost all contact to reality and time.  
His mouth is constantly forming words but no sound comes out. His muscles are twitching in spasmodic tics.  
The man who has dismissed the guards is opening the doors to a cupboard. Karl can hear the whining of the hinges. He can’t move and remains slumped down on the floor when a blanket is thrown over his naked, shivering body.  
He grabs the blanket and pulls it closer, wrapping himself. He can’t see the blood seeping into the cloth.

The man lits a cigarette and Karl can hear him exhales and smells the smoke. The cigarette appears under his nose but Karl only flinches in panic, waiting for the burn.  
The man withdraws the cigarette and calls for the guards. Orders them to take Karl back to his cell. They obviously have to deal with a higher rank for Karl can hear them stamping their feet as they are standing to attention.  
This time the two men taking him back grab him just under his arms. He stumbles between them but there are no kicks this time.  
Only when they reach his cell the men are pulling at the blanket. Karl holds on for dear life but the men stamp on his hands until he opens them and the blanket is taken.

Shivering Karl lies in his cold, damp cell. His legs and arms have lost all sensation. His muscles hurt from shivering so hard and from the brutal treatment he suffered.  
He can’t remember if he was sleeping or just passing out over and over again.  
Again and again he is taken from his cell and mistreated, questioned, tortured. It feels to him as if he had been there a week.

Just now the door to his cell is flung open again and he is grabbed and dragged along the corridors again. This time he lets himself drag no strength for resistance left in him.  
He is dropped in the same room as the day or was it just hours before?  
This time the guards leave immediately. Karl lies crouched on the floor.

The door is opened and the man who had given him the blanket greets him, asks him how he feels. Karl can’t answer his mouth, tongue swollen, dry and very sore.  
The man helps him up, placing his hands on the desk for stability.  
Karl too weak to do anything, stand there leaning over the desk arms, legs shaking.  
He hears the clinking of a belt clasp and he prepares himself for being whipped again. However the metal clasp falls to the ground. The man steps behind him. Karl can feel the heat steaming of the man’s body.  
Then his head was pulled back by his hair and a sharp ripping pain made his eyes water and he screamed out loud.

He an feel his aft-muscle tear and then there is the feeling like being stabbed with a blunt knife over and over again until a burning sensation and the man’s heavy unsteady breath ends the torment.  
Karl is left in the room. The man left. Karl can feel the blood running down his legs. Dripping of his balls. He had come and his belly is sticky with his own cum. He tries to raise himself from the desk. The room begins to spin and that is that.

When he gaines consciousness again he is back in his cell and for the first time the cold, dark room feels safe. Huddled up in a corner Karl soon passes out again.  
When he openes his eyes next, light is blinding him and his head is bedded in something soft. He is wrapped in a soft woolen blanket and somebody is stroking through his hair whispering words of consolation even though Karl doesn’t understand. He groans when he is rocked hard. Somebody shouts out which sounds to him as like “Easy” or “Slowly” he can’t say which. Then all goes dark again and the camera closes the shutter slowly.

tbc


	8. Picture 14

At the Turning of Tides

(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[j_flattermann](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 1,591

rating: PG-15

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[j_flattermann](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)

  
  
**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/235816.html#cutid1) )**

  
Picture 14

Slowly the shutter of the camera opens and in with the light streams the picture of two men, on sitting the other lying, in the back of a large vehicle.  
The lense adjusts and the faces of Karl and Craig are sharpening, their features now clear and distinct visible.  
Karl’s head is bedded in Craig’s lap. His eyes are closed, his breathing much more regular than before.  
Craig’s fingers stroking through Karl’s thick dark hair, which is still gooey with blood and sweat and the raking fingers leave a pattern behind.  
However Craig’s eyes are averted, his gaze fixed on a small chink in the vehicles hull. The camera follows Craig’s gaze through that slid and zooms in on the dark frame of a doorway which leads to the boys shelter. The entrance halfway blocked by debris from the crumbling buildings.

Just then Viggo appears in the doorframe, Billy in his arms and Dom following his cousins on the heel. Viggo clumsily climbs over the debris, several times stopping to steady himself, which of course is difficult with Billy’s full weight in his arms. Dom is reaching out and puts his hands on Viggo’s back to make sure he doesn’t falls backwards.  
Shortly after Viggo, Billy and Dom walk out of the camera’s visor only to reappear at the back door of the vehicle.  
Carefully VIggo is trying to put Billy down inside the van but fails. So he steps aside, Billy still in his arms and asks Dom to get in first.  
Dom crawls in and then received Billy out of Viggo’s arms before sliding back with Billy in his lap.  Dom sits now with his back to the driver’s cabin facing Craig. Both have an injured man in their laps.  
Billy shifts a little, trying to catch a glimpse of Karl.  
“How is he?” he asks before Dom cuts in scolding him.  
“Hey, you be careful not to hurt your foot. He’s knocked out and can’t help you if you make it worse again with your fidgeting.” Dom pointed at Karl, who is clearly unconscious, as he makes his remarks.

Craig smirks at his two cousins. The men in the van have clearly forgotten about Viggo and Sean, who still are rummaging in the shelter only coming out to drop some stuff into the van.  
“He’s in a bad shape, he is. You best leave him in peace.” Craig warns Billy and Dom alike. Then he sighs deeply and adds “I only wished we could find another doctor. I can’t see how he will pull through without proper help.”  
He blushes when a motion next to him brings him face to face with Sean.  
Sean looks sinister.

“We’re getting the rest of our stuff and then move out. Won’t be long and they will sniff this place out, I’m afraid. Best we’re gone by then.” Sean almost mumbles this remark and clearly avoids to look at his younger sibling.  
Craig locks his eyes with Sean’s seeing the worries, fears and desperation reflected in them. He knows that Sean and he share the same fears in regards of Karl’s welfare. He nods at Sean, knowing why the older avoids to make a comment on his younger sibling’s condition.  
«He’s about to lose hope.» Craig things and it’s understandable. None of them seemed to know to whom to turn in regards of a treatment. The only practising doctor they know is the unconscious man in Craig’s lap. Karl’s injuries are bad and they can’t even say how bad. The only thing all of them know instinctively is that they are very bad.

After their last stuff is stacked into the armoured vehicle and all are seated, Viggo and Sean side by side in the driver’s cabin with Sean driving. They start the motor again and the heavy car is slowly pushed forward by the caterpillars that form his rear wheels.  
“Where are we going now?” Billy asks, lying in Dom’s lap only seeing Craig’s blank face and shrugging of the shoulders.  
“We need to find a doctor. One who can be trusted, preferably.” Dom adds, turning halfway to look at Viggo and Sean.

Then they all fall silent, interrupted only by the moans of Karl when the van hits some debris or climbs over a roadblock.  
They drive on for a while crossing the sector. Shortly before they reach the sector’s boundaries they are stopped by a group of men rushing out of buildings, shouting and waving agitatedly.  
When Sean brings the van to stop and kills the engine Viggo gets out, a pistol in his belt for the guys to see that they are not unarmed.  
However two of the men come running over checking the sky frequently by doing so. When they reach Viggo they shout excited. “You want to hide that thing. They’ll be here any minute.”  
There is no time for Viggo to ask questions as the two men wave them to follow.  
Viggo gives Sean a quick heads-up and the motor springs to live again with a roar.  
Slowly following the two men who are racing ahead, directing them to get the van into a rundown looking shed.  
The shed’s walls are quite dilapidated but the roof is intact.

With the van safely parked in the shed, Sean steps out of the vehicle. The two men watch on as Viggo and Sean open the back doors.  
The two men watch with astonished eyes as Dom is handing Billy into the waiting arms of Viggo, before crawling out of the van.  
Craig and Sean struggle with Karl’s limp body still as he’s still unconscious and suddenly the two men spring into action helping to get Karl out and carrying him over to the nearest house.

The group just vanishes inside when the noises of rotor blades of one or two helicopters can be heard approaching.  
“Phew. Just in time. You’re lucky.” The first man says grinning, displaying a full set of very white teeths which are in stark contrast to his dark skinned face.  
“My name is Lawrence.” He starts but is rudely interrupted by his mate.  
“No time for pleasantries, Ren. This guy needs a doctor and fast.” The second man takes the lead directing them through a labyrinth of corridors, staircases and rooms. Finally far underground he relaxes a little pushing a door open, revealing a small hospital station.  
Lawrence or Ren as his mate had called him rushes away to fetch the doctor.

Under the second man’s instructions who identifies himself as Dave, Karl is being placed onto a metal table in the middle of the room.  
Craig immediately searches the room for some kind of pillow to put under Karl’s head, resolves in the end by using his jacket.  
Sean stands by pale faced next to the stretcher table holding Karl’s hand as if Karl’s life depends on it.  
The door swings open and in rushes a tall man in a white coat followed closely by Ren.  
“I’ve brought him, Dave. The doctor’s here now.” He cheers.

The doctor steps to the table giving Karl a quick check and then dismisses them all.  Sean reluctantly let go of Karl’s hand but the doctor barks at him in harsh words and so all leave the room.  
The man called Dave is instructed to fetch the nurses as fast as possible and then the door falls shut. Dave dashes off but soon returns with two other men following close behind. The two are taking over command immediately. The first one orders Viggo, who still holds Billy in his arms, into a neighbouring room which looks identical to the room Karl is in.  
The second nurse walks straight into the room where the doctor is already peeling away the shrug Karl is wrapped in.

The nurse simply starts to get the instruments needed on a tray and then put them onto a trolley which he pushes next to the doctor. Both then turn around and shrug into aprons and gloves.  
Sean, Dom and Craig remain outside when a yelp makes them jump and alerted they run in the direction the yelp came from. Dashing to the second OR’s door they are peeping through the round windows in the doors.  
From inside the nurse called out for them to come in.  
The three streaming in through the door with the fella called Dave following in behind.  
Sprawled out on the floor lies Viggo clearly fainted. Billy is stretched out on the OP table lying on his belly his injured foot up in the air with the bandage taken off.  
The gash on his heel is clearly healing only around the edges the wound is still a little inflamed.  
Dom rushes forward grabbing Billy’s hand.  
“Is it bad? Will he live?” He asks.  
His remarks break the ice and all present are roaring with laughter just as Viggo picks himself up off the floor.  
“What did you faint for?” Sean asks him bewildered and a look full of curiosity.  
“Viggo never was good with blood.” Craig explains. “Worse even when it’s his own.”  
The tension gone in that fashion the friends forget for a short while what is going on in the OR next door.  
The camera shuts with a snap.

 


	9. Picture 15 and 16

25 September 2012 @ 09:45 pm

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Pictures 15 & 16)

**At the Turning of Tides**

(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 1,766

rating: PG-15

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)  


  
**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/240390.html#cutid1) )**

  


Picture 15

The shutter haltingly opens revealing Karl sitting in his bed propped up against a pillow. His face is still black and blue as are other bodyparts. Open wounds crusted over. His ribcage is wrapped in a bandage. But he tries a small smile.

Around his bed there are the guys, even Billy standing with the aid of Dom’s arm. “Thank you, guys.” Karl whispers. “Thanks for all. Thanks for coming for me.” 

“Oh, shut up.” Viggo hollers, “You’d have done the same for anyone of us.” The boys chuckle but Karl pulls a face as laughing hurts him. 

That’s when the doctor cuts in. “Enough for today. He needs rest.” 

He ushers them all out of the room and Karl is helped to lay down by the nurse and covered and tucked in. “You try to sleep now.” The doctor tells Karl before he and the nurse leave as well.

Outside the room the doctor had the boys gathered and asked them to follow him. The nurse vanishes and returns with a pair of crutches for Billy. Then the doctor leads them on along the corridor until they come into a large communal area.

Viggo and Sean immediately looking around, clearly evaluating the place and their overall situation.

Craig who had formed the rear to keep and eye on Billy and Dom had to put them in place twice, as the two are already starting the usual mischief again.

“Remember, you two, we are guests here. So behave accordingly.” He advices and both are making faces at him and giggle.

“This place seems huge.” Viggo says to the doctor, who only nods in response.

“Aren’t you afraid of being detected?” Sean wants to know.

However instead of a response the doctor ushers them on until they are standing in middle of what seems to be  a subterranean market square surrounded by food stalls and restaurants.

“This is our central square and meeting place. It’s the largest of the communal areas.” Dave explains, suddenly appearing next to Sean making him almost jump at his sudden presence.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that, you know.” Sean says, his hand on the hilt of his knife. “That can lead to a fatal error. Fatal especially for you.” 

Dave just cackles like a madman and vanishes as quickly as he appeared.

The doctor waves the boys to come and stand next to him and then suddenly the great space fills with people.

Viggo quickly scans through the faces mainly young male adults and a few females strewn in. The women obviously linked up to a male companion most of them pregnant.

The doctor takes centre stage and with outstretched arms waving gets the crowd to be quiet. 

The last noises fade as the doctor begins to speak.

“Hi everybody. Listen up. I want to introduce you to some guests who will stay with us for a while. Please make them feel welcome and who knows maybe we can convince them to stay with us for good.”

There are some “Hear, hear” and “Welcome” shouts but when the doctor raises his hands again, they all fall silent and listen.

“I begin the introduction with the guy who can’t be here. There is a young man in our care at the hospital at the moment. His name is Karl and he is treated for some injuries. We had to operate but he is doing fine and I am confident that he will be back on his feet soonish. Karl is a good looking bloke and a doctor too I hear, so please if you want to visit it’s OK but not all of you at once. He still needs rest to recover.”

The doctor pauses and there are some whoops and cheers from the crowd which make Sean slightly uneasy.

“Now let us continue.” The doctor says and pulls Viggo by his sleeve to stand next to him. “This here is Viggo. He’s the eldest in the group and these three are his cousins. Billy, Dominic who listens to Dom and last not least Craig.” The doctor points them out as he speaks their names and finally beckons Sean to come closer.

“Now this young man here is called Sean. He is Karl’s older brother.” 

Sean is about to protest but Viggo has his hand placed on his shoulder, squeezes and whispers in Sean’s ear. “Leave it. At least for now.”

As soon as the doctor has finished his speech the boys are surrounded by lots of people patting their shoulder or shaking their hands.

At last Lawrence, Ren, reappears and shoves the crowd away, shouting “Giv’em some air!”

Dave emerges at Viggo’s side and nudges him with his elbow.

“Com’on, I’m showing you where you can stay.”

Very unceremoniously the gathering breaks up and the inhabitants disperse.

“I’m staying with your brother, Sean.” Doc calls out and vanishes in the direction of the corridor that leads to the hospital.

Craig watching the doctor leave falls behind and let Dave lead the others away. With a quick turn of his head he checks if he’s being watched. Then he quickly moves in the direction the doctor had taken. He can’t say why he is following the doctor but  somehow he feels suspicious.

Craig arrives at the door to Karl’s sick room stopping short behind a corner as he sees the doctor and the nurse in conversation.

“How is he?” Doc asks. 

“OK so far. He sleeps. A little restless though. Anyway, the morphine will wear off soon.” 

Doc nods.

“Thanks, Jake. I’m taking over now. Get some rest. I’ll call you when I need you again.”

Jake, the nurse nods and a flush of adrenalin rushes through Craig as he fears discovery by the retiring nurse.

But Jake turns in the other direction heading away from Doc and Craig and vanishes into the darkness of the corridor. Craig sighs, finding that he had been holding his breath.

With Doc disappearing into Karl’s room, Craig dares to slowly slide forward until he reaches Karl’s door. He tries to press his ear against the door to hear what’s going on inside.

Just then the door gives way and Craig stumbles forward, landing with his face on Doc’s broad chest.

“Hey, What have we here?” Doc chuckles wrapping his arms around Craig who blushes and tries to escape.

The camera shutter closes on the two.

* * *

 

Picture 16

Shutter of the camera slides open almost noiseless. 

Karl is lying in the bed sleeping. Sean sits by his side holding his hand. Dark circles under Sean’s eyes tell the story of lack of sleep.

Jake, the nurse enters the sickroom with a steaming mug of coffee in one hand and a cross-bun in the other.

“Here, Sean. Eat something or at least have a bit of the coffee I made. He’s calm now. If you want to refresh yourself, I stay with him.”

Digging the heels of his palms into his eyes Sean starts to rub.

“Ah, thanks man. Yeah, he’s calm now.” Sean says getting up and tucks Karl in again before taking the mug and the bun out of Jake’s hands.

The bun is gone with three bites and washed down with the coffee. “Ta, Mate. That was good.”

“I could do with a shower and a piss.” Sean says and takes Jake for his word, nips out of the room in the direction of toilet and shower Jake has pointed out to him.

On his way he almost bumps into Craig and the doctor. Craig blushing bright red as if caught in the act of - whatever. Strangely enough Sean isn’t bothered at all. While standing under the shower he reflects on his reaction, searching his feeling as for a while he seemed to be interested in Craig. But now he muses and finds that he is rather amused than hurt, which confirms that he hadn’t fallen for the young man.

However being busy with introspection he wonders if there is somebody else who has caught his eye. The result makes him blush.

In the corridor Doc holds Craig in his arms. “Are you OK?” He asks the young man. “Or will you get into trouble now?”

Craig shakes his head. “No. I don’t think.” He answers softly.

“If so, tell me.” Doc says. 

“Do you really mean that?”

“Sure! Otherwise I wouldn’t have said so, would I?”

Doc lifts Craig’s head with his hand under Craig’s chin and then kisses him long and soft.

“Time for me to check on my patient.” He says breaking the kiss. “Can I see you later?”

Craig blushes again, smiles and nods before leaving in the direction of the meeting area.

As soon as he comes out of the corridor he is called over.

“Hey! Hey, Craig! Over here!”

Dom and Billy shouting, waving at him to join them.

Arriving at their table in front of one of the food stalls, the two are bombarding him with questions.

“Where were you last night?”

Craig blushes again and hates himself for doing it. 

“I was trying to check on Karl.” He says cautiously.

“How strange.” Dom muses loudly, “Why did the nurse came for Sean in the middle of the night when you were already there?” - “OUCH” he yelps as he is kicked to the shin by Billy.

Craig leaves the question unanswered, gets up and walks over to the food stall to pick something to eat. Meanwhile Billy is nudging Dom.

“WHAT? What now?” Dom hisses.

“He didn’t really say that he was with Karl, did he?” Billy points out.

“Did he not?” Dom is confused and scratches his head trying hard to remember what Craig actually had said.

Sean comes out of the shower room and goes straight back to Karl’s room.

Jake is standing by the bed trying to calm Karl down who again is tossing and turning in the bed.

Karl is murmuring inaudible words until he wakes up with a scream.

Sean is immediately at his side.

“It’s OK, Karl. It’s me, Sean.” He takes his little brother in his arm and starts to rock back and forward.

“Be careful, that you don’t open up his wounds.” Jake cautions.

However Sean doesn’t seem to listen. “You’re safe now, little one. You’re safe. Nobody is going to hurt you.” He soothes Karl who relaxes a little in his arms.

Jake makes a dash for the door only to crash into the doctor who has come running as soon as he has heard the scream. 

Slowly the camera shutter closes.

  


 

TBC

 


	10. Picture 17

22 October 2012 @ 11:50 pm

At the Turning of Tides (Word-Picture 17)

**At the Turning of Tides**

(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 1,796

rating: PG-16

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/) **j_flattermann**  
 

 

**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/247175.html#cutid1) )**

  
Picture 17

 

The camera shutter opens with a small humming sound revealing Karl sitting in the hospital bed and on the chair next to him in sits Dave with the pen and a notepad in his hand.  
“It escapes me why you are bringing this pad all the time.” Karl teases.  
“Well, it’s come to my knowledge that «shrinks» use to have them to doodle for to not to fall asleep whilst their patients tell their boring stories.” Dave teases back and promptly has to duck down as a pillow came flying his way.  
The nurse shakes his head as he and the doctor walk past the door but Dr Mark smiles, listening to the laughter that follows the banter.  
“It seems,” he says to nurse Jake, “that we have found the right medication.” Jake snorts a little misgiving.  
“You are not jealous, are you?” The doctor asks. The young man at his side bites is lip and casts his eyes down. The doctor pats the young man’s shoulder.  
“You can’t force love, Jake. It has its own mind and I’m sure it will come to you. Just give it time.”

 

Back in the hospital room a pillow fight ensues accompanied by roaring laughter coming from the throats full heartedly. A few minutes in and Dave stops their fooling by cautioning Karl to watch out for his injuries.  
“You have to be careful with that still. Do they pain you not?”  
But Karl shakes his head.  
“I wish you all would stop packing me in cotton wool.” He complains. “I’m bloody bored and sick of staying in this bed. I wished Dr Mark would sign the release sheet.” Karl sighs clearly annoyed.  
“Give me just a minute.” shouts Dave and rushes out of the room.  
Shortly after he’s catching up with the doctor and the nurse who are in conversation with Sean and Viggo.  
“ ‘scuse me, Doc. Do we have a wheelchair somewhere?” He barges into the running conversation without the slightest hesitation.  
“Why? What for?”  
“The patient is getting a little bored and needs an outing. Thought I could wheel him to our artificial garden. Guess he’d like that.”  
Jake the nurse’s eyebrows lift as Sean and Viggo’s chaw drop.  
“I think that’s a great idea. Just make sure he keeps warm and as soon as he fatigues take him back. We actually should make that a routine. Jake, please show Dave where we store the wheelchairs, will you?”  
The doctor turns his attention back to the conversation with Sean and Viggo.  
“Come on then.” Jake says and they walk back the way they both have come from.  
But  as soon as they reach Karl’s hospital room Jake sends Dave off. “You get him dressed and I get the chair.” says he and vanishes around the corner into another corridor.

 

Meanwhile in Karl’s room Dave provides Karl with a tracksuit that fits him loosely so he will no rub his wounds sore and he digs out some shoes as well.  
They are both still fiddling Karl’s arms into the sleeves of the jacket when the door is flung open and a wheelchair is pushed into the room with Jake at the other end.  
“OK. You’re good to go.” Nurse Jake announces after having given Dave a hand to help the much taller Karl into the wheelchair.  
“Do you think you can manage from here?” He asks before holding the door open for them to get through.

 

“Where are you taking me?” Karl is curious and looks around. He hasn’t seen much of his new abode since his arrival as he had been admitted straight into the hospital of the subterranean city.  
“It’s a surprise.” Answers Dave and chuckles a little. Never before has he seen his patient and new friend so excited and even happy. It’s the first time Karl loosen up since his arrival several weeks ago and since he is back fully conscious.

 

Dave had been consulted by Doctor Mark as soon as he witnessed the severeness of Karl’s nightmares. The attacks had grown from bad to worse and with Doc’s question remaining unanswered by Sean and the rest of the boys and Karl stubbornly refusing to speak he asked Dave to take over. Dave had experience as a psychiatrist.  
His dad had been one and Dave had learnt the trade from him. He even had proven his worth when the group had stumbled across Josh, whom they had found after his escape from prison. Josh had been broken and tormented. He clearly had been tortured during his time locked up and not only they had almost killed him but he too had attempted several suicides until Dave had looked into the case.  
Winning Josh’s trust Dave had managed to bring the young man to talk and most recently he had seemed calm and relaxed. On their last meeting he had seemed quite happy and told Dave that he indeed was very much looking forward to the birth of his first child.  
It was this track record that had caused Doc to involve Dave into Karl’s case.

 

Karl however would shut himself up every time the topic of his injuries or his torment during his incarceration. He refused to touch the sore spot and even was not willing to discuss his nightmare, not even with his brother.  
Nevertheless today was different. Karl seemed happy for the very first time as they made their way to their destination. He was lively and Dave had to explain a lot on their way as Karl was firing off question after question. All signs of his usual depression seemed to have flown.

 

Dave is smiling and even though the questions don’t seem to stop he tries to his best abilities to explain to Karl the history of the building, how the group had found the place and which efforts had been undertaken to make habitable and safe.  
“OK. Now you have to close your eyes and you have to keep them shut until I tell you otherwise.”  
Dave had to turn the wheelchair around so that he could open the door and pull Karl and his vehicle through. Karl, just like a little boy had his eyes covered with his hands.  
“When, Dave, when?” He gets more and more excited.  
“Stop wiggling in that darn chair or you will fall over.” Dave tells him off but can’t help but grinning.  
Karl pulls his hands from his eyes and is speechless.  
The room is filled with trees, bushes, flowers and grass. Butterflies flatter to and fro and as he and Dave are completely silent he hears birdsong.  
Tears are filling his eyes.  
“Oh, Dave, how beautiful.” He whispers as if he has entered a church.  
“How on earth did you manage to do all this. How deep under the surface are we?”  
“At least four stories, Karl. But most of it was already there. You see up there the roof had been fallen in and the little garden created himself.”  
“Oh. The wonders of nature.” Karl smiles.  
“You like it.” Karl nods vividly.  
“You haven’t seen the best yet.” Dave says and pushes the wheelchair on.

 

They follow a small path and then over a bridge and into a grove where there is a pond and a waterfall. Nothing big only from the floor above down.  
There by the pond is a bench and Dave fixes the breaks on Karl’s chair before he sits down next to him on the bench.

 

“I had no idea.” Karl says.  
“Sure not, you haven’t been out of that bloody hospital bed since you came.” Dave chuckles.  
Then they sit together in silence for a while.  
As Karl sits all quiet Dave gets a bit worried.  
“Are you hungry, thirsty, tired.” But Karl shakes his head.  
“It’s so beautiful. I wished we could come here more often.” says he in a soft voice.  
“I will speak to the Doc but he has already said that this is a good idea and should be turned into a routine. What you say?”  
Karl’s eyes sparkle.  
“That would be marvelous.” His gaze fixed straight ahead on the waterfall and pond Karl falls silent again.

 

Dave gets a little nervous and he studies the features of the young man in the wheelchair. “It helped me to come here when I was broken.” He says calmly and Karl’s head turns.  
“You? What happened?”  
“Before I came here I was working with my father as a psychologist. That was until they came and took us away. They were trying to force my father to work for them but he refused. At first they tortured him hoping that he would break. When they saw that he wouldn’t budge they turned to me.”  
Karl stared at the man sitting on the bench with his hands folded in his lap and his eyes fixed on the gravel before his feet.  
“Bad memories?” Karl asks and Dave nods.  
“At first they just beat me up in father’s presence. Then they ...” Dave takes a deep breath, swallows, “Then they started to mutilate me. They raped me and then forced my dad to do the same. They gave me electro shocks and almost killed me with it. One day when they were forcing themselves onto me again and then forced dad to do same over and over, he whispered ‘Flee, son. Try to escape. If you can’t kill yourself. I will do the same.’ It was the last time I saw him.”  
“You managed to escape?”  
“Yes, I was lucky. I shared my cell with another guy and he died over night. They came and bagged him and I swapped places. After I had rolled him into my covers I hid in the bag and played dead. They weren’t burying the dead but just chucked them out on a dump.  
As soon as they were gone I tore the bag and hid.”

 

“Wow.”  
“How did you got out?”  
“Sean, Viggo and Craig came for me.”  
“Hm. You should be glad to have them.”  
“I am. Really. I am. If it hadn’t been for them. ...” Karl stops his throat tight but Dave just waits not pushing him.  
“I was too bad hurt.” Another break and Dave just sits it out.  
“That man ... I think ... no ... I know he did it on purpose. I saw his face ... all the time ... his face.” Karl wipes his face with his hands as if to wipe away the bad memories.  
“I think it’s enough for today. Let’s go back. We’ll come back tomorrow.”  
But Karl shakes his head.  
“Just a few more minutes, please.”  
Dave smiles and nods. “OK, mate. But only a few more minutes.”  
The camera shutter closes on the two men sitting by the pond with the waterfall.

 

 

tbc

 

[ ](https://sites.google.com/site/middleversearchives/middleverse-archives/siritigram56-stories/at-turning-of-tides/09-attot---picture-17/tides_Dave%2BKarl.jpg?attredirects=0)

Picture made especially for this story by my lovely friend [](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/profile)**[raven22372](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/)**  


 


	11. Picture 18 to 22

**At the Turning of Tides**

(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 3,136

rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/)  
                         Story started in my second journal [](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/) **siritigram59**  originally but was taken back to this journal for convenience.

  
  
  
**([Collapse](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/268987.html#cutid1) )**

  
Word Picture 18

The camera shutter opens to Karl and Dave sharing a cigy and chatting in the garden by the waterfall on the bench. Karl doesn’t need the wheelchair any longer but walks with a cane.  
After Dave had owned up to his own torment during his captivity, Karl began to open up.  
He spoke about the torture and how the men had tried to brainwash him, hoping that he would give away his friends. However touching the last and final hurdle proved to be incredible difficult for him and it takes Dave weeks and kind persuasion until Karl is able to speak about the rape.

Now that his wounds are all healed Karl has been released from the hospital. Seeing Dave on a daily basis he tells him that he struggles to team up with Sean, Viggo and the rest of the gang. Dave seems to be the only person who’s presence he can endure.  
On the day of his release from hospital Karl hides himself away, spending long hours in the garden all by himself until Dave comes and finds him and makes him talk between the puffs from the shared cigarette.

“I can’t go back and share a room with them.” Karl confesses. “What if I still scream in my dreams and keep them all awake at night. It doesn’t seem right or fair.”  
“You have to speak to your brother about this. That is the least thing you should do.” Dave suggests and they agree that Dave goes and fetches Sean so that Karl and he can talk in private.

Karl waits in the garden turning his cane in his hands nervously until he hears the crunch of Sean’s boots on the gravel of the path.  
Sean seems as nervous as Karl, not sure why he has been called out here by Dave.  
“Hi. Your better?! Got out of that wheelchair, I see.” Sean says to break the wall of silence.  
“Yeah. Actually, they have released me from hospital today.” Karl says and drawing a deep breath adds. “Sean, I feel I can’t move back with you lot. Not yet. I’m not ready for that.”  
Sean’s face turns red and Karl fears that he explodes with anger but Sean keeps silent just looks down at his feet.  
“Please. Sean, please understand. I’m still having nightmares. Dave tries to help me with this and ... I don’t know if it works. I’m not so sure.”  
“Uh’hu!” Is all that Sean responds.  
Karl turns a bit on the bench to face his brother.  
“It’s ... Well, I fear I might keep you awake at nights or wake you up. You all have settled in by now, I guess. Probably found work or something. Be a part of the community here.”  
Sean pulls at his fingers. Awkward silence.  
“Sean, please understand.” Karl pleas.  
“It’s not that I don’t understand. I just had hoped we two could be together again, as we had before. Reckon that’s not happening.”  
Karl places his arm over his crouched brother, bending down to meet with Sean’s face that is still turned downwards staring on his feet.  
“So, where are you staying then?” Sean asks.  
“Dave has offered, I can stay at his place as long as I’m still in his therapy.”  
“Hm.”  
“Is that OK with you?”  
“Hm.”  
“Sean! Say something apart from hm, please.”  
“If he has the room.”  
Karl sighs.  
“You’re impossible. I knew you wouldn’t understand.” Karl is almost tearing up.  
Sean lifts his body up from his crouching position and seeing how upset Karl is hugs him.  
“Listen, little brother, you do what you need to do to get well. OK?”  
Karl nods and snivels.  
“I do understand that it feels awkward for you. With us all crammed up in one room. It’s rather awkward for me too.”  
Karl nods again and a small sob come from him.  
“OK. Now stop it. This Dave should better take good care of you or else ...”  
Both start to laugh.  
They both stand up from the bench and hug each other again. Then they slowly walking out of the garden. Dave waits at the entrance and the brothers say good-bye to each other before leaving in different directions.  
The camera shutter snaps shut.

 

***

 

Picture 19

The camera opens to Sean pacing the room he shares with Viggo, Billy and Dom. Craig has move in with the doctor so one bed in the room remains empty.  
Sean just returned from the meeting with Karl is in a bad mood feeling very hurt that his brother, or at least the boy that he helped raising obviously doesn’t trust him anymore and he paces the room muttering to himself.  
Viggo sitting on his cod overhears the muttering and when Sean passes him he says, “That is utter nonsense and you know it.”  
Sean stops short glaring at the older companion.  
“Karl has been going through a deep trauma. He needs professional help to get over it. Are you able to give him that?” Viggo points out. “Or is it Dave that is trained to deal with things like that? Perhaps you don’t want your brother to get better, huh? That way you think you can control him better, is it that?”  
Sean almost jumps at Viggo who was of course prepared for the attack, having provoke the reaction.  
He grabs Sean and wraps his arms around him so he can’t move. Sean is astonished to find that the so much slimmer man has such a strength.  
“Just think.” Viggo says in a very calm voice. “Do you want him to get better? I’m sure you are.”  
Sean nods, tears biting his eyes and choking his throat shut.  
“It hurts, I know.” Viggo continues, “You feel rejected. All your life you have cared for him and now that you feel he needs care most he pushes you back.”  
Again Sean just nods. His head falling down on Viggo’s shoulder, he starts to sob.  
“I can’t do anything for him. I’m so useless. I couldn’t even keep him from harm.”  
“Shush. You’re such a dummy. Karl is a grown-up man. He makes decision for himself. Sometimes that backfires. But still, you have to let go and let him lead his own life.”  
Sean cries on Viggo’s shoulder.  
“Damn. I wished I could help you, Sean. I felt the same when the boys went their own ways. I know how it hurts. How rejected one feels. Suddenly one’s life seemed to be empty. You need to find a new purpose in life. Something that keeps you occupied. Or perhaps someone to love and share life with you.”  
Sean calms down a little, they sit down on Viggo’s bed. Sean still sobbing but no longer crying.  
The camera closes.

 

***

 

Picture 20

The shutter opens and reveals the sight of the main meeting area of the compound. Viggo and Sean sitting at a table having breakfast together.  
Karl and Dave arrive. Greetings are exchanged and Karl and Dave sit down next to Viggo and Sean.

Sean and Viggo are spending much more time together lately. Actually, since Sean’s break down. Billy and Dom are more away than at home and with Karl and Craig moved out Viggo is the only familiar face Sean has.  
So Sean has overcome his suspicions towards Viggo and the two are thick as thieves.  
They have their clashes of opinion still occasionally, especially when Sean deems Viggo to lenient with Billy and Dom who are up to their usual mischief.  
The truth is that Sean is fighting hard to rectify his former grudge against Viggo, feeling rather ashamed and reluctantly admits to himself that he was wrong in his view towards the eldest in the group.  
As Viggo obviously seems to be unawares of these feelings, Sean comes to terms, at least he feels that he hasn’t done anything that would require an apology.

Sitting together at breakfast Dave and Karl report the progress Karl is making in terms of finding his inner self again.  
Sean is still a little frustrated and grumpy about the fact that his brother lives with Dave but Viggo helps to prevent a clash between the brothers, who both seems still a little wound up.  
“So you are living with Dave? Where is that? Are we going to see the place sometimes?” Viggo turns the conversation to lighter stuff.  
Dave blushes and then grins at Viggo seeing the strategy behind the chitter chatter.  
“Hell, sure. Of course you both must come and visit us. I’ve heard you are both helping with securing the place and make it safe and defendable if we ever should be attacked. That is great. So when do you have some spare time?”  
Viggo pokes Sean who still sits brooding.  
“Next Saturday, is that OK, Sean?”  
“Hm.”  
“Yeah. Next Saturday. We meet here and you are going to take us. All right?”  
“Splendid. That gives us three days to do some shopping and cleaning.” Dave chuckles and winks at Viggo who unabashedly grins back.  
They break up breakfast and each pair goes their own way.  
The shutter closes.

 

***

 

Picture 21

The camera shutter open showing a rural underground landscape at the outskirts of the underground city. The ceiling is studded with safety glass bricks which let in the light and allow plants to grow with additional help of special lighting.  
This part of the underground development wasn’t as urban as the inner city. Only a handful people had settled there.  
Sean and Viggo standing next to Karl and Dave stared, mouth open. Never had they expected to find a space like this underground. Spaces between the homes were widespread. Filled with trees, fields.  
“Wow.” Viggo said and it was clear that he was taken by the place. Unlike like the small garden in the city who clearly showed the hands of gardeners, this part of the living space was left wild apart from the few fields and working gardens around the houses.  
“This is amazing. Beautiful. I had no idea that something like this existed.” Viggo exclaims breathlessly.  
Dave smiles. One of the home-farms is his own.  
He had been one of the first to clear the debris from the ground and had gathered soil from above ground. Had planted and helped with the lighting. Most of the farms were doing well and provided not only the inhabitants but also the City with their products. There were animals like chicken, pigs, cows. All that could be used for food production. A few of the farmers had horses to help with the fieldwork. The only energy this place used was created by windmills who gathered wind from a vents in the ceiling.

Dave can see that Viggo is utterly smitten with the place and true to from he begins to bombard Dave with questions.  
“Dave, is there a chance for us to get a farm? What has one to do to secure oneself one of these farms?”  
“Well, Viggo, you can’t have one of the existing farms as they are all inhabited and I know my neighbours, none of them will give up their farm.”  
Viggo is very disappointed and it shows.  
“Easy, don’t give up yet. There is a good chance that you can build your own, if you have the talent. Of course I will support you and get the neighbours to help as well. Getting set-up is fairly easy, all you have to do is to claim a ground that you want to put your farm on and stake your claim, get it registered. If you really want to do that, I’ll gladly help you.”  
This gets Viggo all excited and after Dave shows him where his farm is located, he ventures of to investigate the area further for a possible place to settle.

Sean is flabbergasted and stays behind with Karl and Dave.  
Dave and Karl take him to their farm and Dave proudly announces “That’s mine.”  
Sean is positively surprised, seeing a nice comfy cottage places in a lovely walled cottage garden and outside the walls fields and pastures for animals.  
“YOU did all this?” Sean gasps and Dave nods.  
“Build, planted, everything.” He says. “Now that Karl lives here, he gives me a hand. Has taken on an herbal garden at the back of the house.”

Sensing that the siblings need some time alone, Dave offers to put the kettle on for some tea and vanishes into the cottage kitchen.  
“I can see why you want to stay here.” Sean confesses, “However, I’m still not quite convinced that this is the right plan. Do you want to stay here for good? I’m not sure if that is the right thing for us, little brother. There are so many people here. It must draw attention sooner or later. And even though I am trying to help them build some defense systems, I fear this place is vulnerable. And especially after what has happened ... You know, ... To you, I’m worried. I still feel responsible for you.”  
Karl wants to interfere but Sean raises his hand.  
“Please, let me finish and then I will hear you out.” He says, “I know you are all grown up and all ... It’s just ... I promised Doc.”  
Karl swallows, smiles and gives Sean a hug.  
“Thanks, bro. I really do appreciate this. I’m still a bit shaky form the recent events. I just need a little time a time-out so to speak, to heal. Some kind of a holiday. Dave and this farm are coming as a real treat. Dave takes care that I’m not biting more that I can chew with the work in the garden. But honestly, Sean, it does me worlds of good. It takes my mind off things, sets me on the right tracks again. Feeling still a little bit derailed at the moment.” Karl says liking his train analogy and grins.  
“OK. You stick around until your are rolling on the right tracks again.” Sean replies grinning as well as he picks up Karl’s example. They both hug again and then Dave shouts from the kitchen window that they should come inside as the tea is ready.

The two walk arm in arm through the cottage garden and vanish inside the house.  
The camera shutter closes.

 

***

 

Picture 22

The shutter slowly opens to a picturesque scene with four men sitting at a table in the cottage kitchen, plates emptied sitting in the middle of the table and glasses in front of them filled with Dave’s home brewed beer.

Then Viggo and Sean get up as they still have some way to go back to their room in the city. Before they leave Karl holds Sean back by his arm.  
“Sean!” Karl says, “We hadn’t really much time to talk. I ...” Karl searches his brother’s face for a reaction hoping that he’s not poking into a hornets’ nest.  
“It seems to me that you had taken a liking to Craig.” Karl starts again speaking softly so that Viggo can’t hear, who is nearby in conversation with Dave.  
“And now, well, he and the doc. Are you all right?”  
Sean blushes and then grins shyly, takes Karl into a wrestling hug rubbing his knuckles over his head.  
“Nosey bugger.” He growls in jest. “Seems I can’t anything form you.”  
He lets Karl go.  
“No, don’t worry, I’m fine. The boy’s a bit too young and too good looking for me anyway, I guess.” Sean shrugs.  
Karl playfully boxes his arm.  
“Bullshit! You know that he’s stupid to miss out on you. But I think I have seen a glint in Viggo’s eyes when he looks at you. And you two seem to get along much better lately.” Karl whispers in Sean’s ear.  
Sean blushes.  
“Huh? Viggo? Yeah, we finally stopped fighting, well at least not so often anymore. A glint, huh? You’re sure?”  
Karl chuckles and Sean blushes some more.  
“If I was you I would check him out. He might be worth it.”  
Sean raises his hand pretending to slap Karl. Which of course he doesn’t, especially as Dave and Viggo now staring at them.  
But then the brothers hug and Sean and Viggo rushes off on their way home.

On their way back into the cottage Dave looks at Karl sideways and asks “What was that about?”  
“Brotherly worries and troubles of the heart.” Karl says smirking and chuckles even more seeing Dave raise one eyebrow.  
“I can do that better.” He jokes and gives Dave a taster what a raised eyebrow should look like. Both start to roar with laughter and the cottage door falls shut behind them.

Inwardly Dave is extremely happy as he has never seen Karl so open, relaxed and carefree before. He feels that Karl’s laughter is genuine.  
However, Karl grows serious again very quickly.  
“Dave? Is it wrong of me to wish ... To hope for ...” Karl stutters, he never before had put this to Dave and he doesn’t know how he will react.  
“What are you hoping for, Karl?” Dave investigates.  
“Well, that you do to me, you know. ... Sex.” Karl blushes and scoffs his toe.  
“Your brother Sean, you told me that he is interested in men rather than in woman.” Dave replies. “Do you think that is wrong?”  
Karl shakes his head.  
“Nah. He always was interested in men. I always thought it natural really with so few women around. But, that’s not the same, Dave.”  
Dave looks confused, so Karl tries to explain better but stutters terribly.  
“For me, well, ... It began ... You know ... With, that man, ... And ... Well, ever since ...”  
Dave simply takes him in his arms.  
“How much sexual experience did you have before the assault?”  
He pushes Karl at arm’s length to see the young man’s face.  
Karl shakes his head. “Non.” He confesses.  
“See! Why should it be OK for Sean and not for you?” Dave reasons.  
Karl wants to reply but Dave’s index finger lands on his lips sealing them.  
“Karl, the only thing that was wrong was the way your first experience played out. This wasn’t your fault. You were raped. It was your first time ever and it should have been wonderful. Instead it was traumatic. I’m planning to erase all those bad memories and replace them with beautiful ones tonight.”  
Karl blushes again and as Dave’s lips meet with his he leans into the kiss.  
When they break free to breath, Karl all shy says.  
“Dave, I wished it was tonight already.”  
Dave gasps and when Karl looks shyly at him with those big brown pleading eyes he demands.  
“In my bed. NOW!”  
Takes Karl by the hand and leads the way.  
The camera shutter closes slowly as the bedroom door falls into the lock.

  
  
  
  
  
tbc  
  



	12. Picture 23 to 27

At the Turning of Tides  
(a very dark fic by  j_flattermann)  
word count: 1,835  
rating: NC-17  
Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of j_flattermann  
                  Story started in my second journal siritigram59 originally but was taken back to this journal for convenience.  
                  Please re-visit [word picture 10 - 11](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/228620.html) for another of  raven22372's amazing artworks which I just have added.  
  
  
  
Word Picture 23  
  
[](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/952/948559)  
 _made by the very talented_raven22372. Please do not copy without her permission.  
  
The camera’s shutter opens to five pairs of eyes which are fixed at three shapes that are growing smaller by the minute until they disappear between the rubble of the surface world.  
Craig, standing by Viggo’s side had taken the older into his arm in a hug that looked more to serve his own comfort than his cousin’s. Behind the two and towering over them stood Doctor Mark, stroking Craig’s cheek, which was wet and stained with tears, consolingly. Viggo was standing so still that his breathing had become undetectable. His eyes staring out, red rimmed and unblinking.  
  
A little bit further to Viggo’s left Karl and Dave were standing. Silent, hands firmly clasped between them. Craig’s sobbing, choked Karl but he fought down the tears by consistently swallowing.  
They all remained standing and staring until the broken horizon swallowed the three members of their little family.  
  
  
Viggo stood quietly watching on as his two young cousins and his friend vanished before his very eyes. His mind was reeling back to the evening before when he had been with Sean.  
They had talked very long and in the end Sean had quietly asked if Viggo planned to stay put, not to leave the city. Viggo had confirmed this and even though saddened by Sean’s decision to leave with Billy and Dom, he’d managed to ask why this was so important to Sean.  
  
“Because,” Sean had replied, “ I might come back if I know that there still is someone here I know.”  
“Is that a promise?” Viggo had asked and Sean had grinned and confirmed. “If I make it to where ever the two are heading and possibly settling, I shall come back. And if I make it back alive, I shall tell you where they went and then if you still want me and want to stay here, then I shall stay with you.”  
  
The camera shutter closes on Viggo standing with squinted eyes, staring unblinkingly at the horizon that just had swallowed Billy, Dom and Sean.  
  
  
  
Word Picture 24  
  
As the shutter of the camera rotates open Viggo is revealed standing in middle of a field wiping clean his dirty hands.  
  
The first few months since the leave of his two cousins and his love interest had gone fast. Viggo had been too busy to think. His new farm needed all his attention. There were fields to plow, seeds to sow and the buildings to set up or renovate, before he could even think of getting all started and life stock in.  
Craig, Mark, Karl and Dave were regular visitors and none of them minded to get their hands dirty by giving him a helping hand.  
This way the time had gone by fast and even though Karl had admitted to still walking to the surface and looking out for Sean and Viggo’s two cousins, life had gone on and the three hadn’t been seen or heard of.  
  
Karl insisted that they were still fine, however.  
“I have a special bond with Sean.” He usually insisted, “I would know if something bad had happened to him.”  
Craig and Viggo usually would exchange glances and raise their eyebrow whilst Dave and Mark would stare into their drinks, food or down on their hands or feet, what ever was present at the time the topic arouse, but they remained silent.  
  
However, the promise Sean had made to Viggo, Viggo kept to himself. Somehow he feared to keep hopes up high.  
Only now that the farm was settled and running smoothly, he found more and more time to ponder and secretly started to go above ground each day to scan the horizon.  
At times he wished he had Karl’s conviction that all was well, however more often he would sit and stare into the distance with eyes burning from unshed tears.  
Every little chore he grabbed at as if it was a life line, thanking for each emergency that would keep his mind fixed on the task and not allow to wander off beyond the horizon.  
  
Viggo was thankful for the hustle and bustle his first harvest season created and now that the fields were yielded and the last corn cob on the way to storage in his barn, he stood on the empty field, wiped his hands on his dirty jeans and looked up to the ceiling with the equipment for the artificial sunlight and rain.  
Tonight the family would come over and celebrate ‘Thanks giving’ with him. The first year without their cousins and Karl’s brother had come to a close.  
  
The camera shutter closes on Viggo in fresh, festive clothes standing on the decorated porch with a smile on his face for a welcome, as Craig, Mark, Karl and Dave arrive.  
  
  
  
Word Picture 25  
  
The camera shutter reveals Dom, Billy and Sean all dirtied, clothes torn, their cheeks hollow, eyes deep set with dark circles underneath from lack of sleep.  
Sean is on the watch whilst Dom is rolled up in a ball trying to get some sleep.  
Billy stirs something in a tin can with a stick as the tin sits on a small fire.  
“Meal’s almost ready.” He says to his two companions with a croaky voice and as Sean and Dom hold out their spoons, pours a thin slimy liquid onto them before pouring the rest on his own spoon.  
“It’s the last tin.” He says.  
Carefully not to drip anything of the concoction on the ground, the three blowing on their spoons with the free hand held out under the spoon to catch what might run off it.  
  
“Sean do you think we’ve lost them?” Billy asks after licking his spoon clean.  
Sean shrugs. “Dunno. Possible.”  
Dom curls himself up again, yawns and says sleepily “I wouldn’t mind if they caught us now. It would either mean we get a decent meal or they do away with us. Can’t say I much mind either way.”  
He turns over and lies still waiting for his exhaustion to bring sleep.  
  
Billy and Sean are looking at each other wearily, before Sean turns away and walks back to his lookout post.  
“Best you try to get some sleep too, Billy.” He says in a soft voice.  
The spoken to lays himself on the rocky ground, shivering violently with cold whilst his tum rumbles terribly.  
Sean tries to ignore the noises his own tum is making and squints his eyes staring out into the hazy grey surroundings.  
  
‘If only we had listened to Karl and Viggo and the others.’ Shot to his head.  
The thought of Viggo and Karl creates a big lump in his throat making it go tighter as it already is.  
Thinking of his little brother Karl and even more of Viggo, who made his heart go faster by merely thinking of him, cut so deep that he started to cry. He hoped they, the left behinds were safe. He wiped his eyes and concentrated on his watch again.  
  
However the thoughts wouldn’t stop. He, Billy and Dom had been through some adventure ever since they had left the underground city. Now all three had decided it to be best to return to the subterranean metropolis and their family members, the loved ones they had left behind.  
In the beginning they had kept a diary and followed up on the time that went by but those days were long past and almost forgotten.  
Now there was just one thought on their minds - SURVIVAL.  
  
They had run into trouble quickly and from there it had been out of the frying pan into the fire. He had forgotten how often they had made an escape by their bare skin.  
‘Maybe Dom was right and it was better to get caught.’ He mused disheartened.  
At least it would make an end to the thirst and the gnawing hunger, the hiding and lack of sleep.  
The camera shuts on Sean’s face pale and hollow staring out over the boulder he’s hiding behind, thinking: ‘Behind that haze somewhere is home.’  
  
  
  
  
  
Word Picture 26  
  
The shutter opens and the camera reveals the main plaza of the underground city. Doctor Mark Ferguson and Craig are there helping to direct a seemingly never ending stream of people to make shift shelters set up at the end of the square.  
Every now and then the ground shakes when bombs falling, exploding close by.  
Karl comes running with the first aid case in hand.  
Craig directs him to a man with a young boy both bleeding from head wounds.  
Dave and Viggo come running and joining in the line of helpers. After Karl has seen to the wounded he joins Dave, Craig and Viggo who are handing out blankets and food.  
  
“Looks like they are serious this time with trying to eliminating us all.” Craig says quietly so that only the members of his family can hear him. “How long do you think our defense will hold?” He asks looking at Viggo for an answer.  
But Viggo just shrugs. “Guess we’re lucky when we can sit it out.” Karl answers instead.  
That marks the end of the conversation as they all have to concentrate on handing out supplies again.  
The camera shuts on the boys facing the next wave of refugees.  
  
  
  
  
Word Picture 27  
  
The camera shutter opens and follows Dom, Billy and Sean who are running crouched down not to be noticed through the rubble of crushed buildings. Every time a bomb falls the three dive for cover only to jump to their feet again and run some more yards until they have to take cover again.  
  
“How far, Sean?” Billy asks breathless.  
Sean carefully raises his head and checks the surrounding.  
“Fuck! I wished I knew. They’ve bombed a hell out of this place. Nothing looks like it used to be.” Sean sighed.  
“So what now?” Dom piped in. “If you don’t know where the sheltered entrance is, then we’re bugged. Weren’t you the one helping building it?”  
Sean nodded.  
“But that was before they threw bombs and brought all the building down.” He says.  
Sean knew the general direction and thought that despite the destruction he had spotted one or two landmarks. Still with so many buildings destroyed it could well be that the entrance was blocked under all that debris.  
  
“Let’s move on a bit further. More like over there.” Sean says, pointing ahead slightly to the left.  
The direction Sean was pointing to led right up to the line of fire.  
“You must be kiddin’ me.” Billy gasps.  
“The entrance is somewhere over there. I’m sure.” Sean confirms that he is quite serious.  
“What I’m not sure is if it’s still accessible.” He added. “You boys keep your heads down. I go first. Wait for my signal. If they get me you’re on your own.”  
Billy and Dom nod.  
“Good luck.” They say simultaneously.  
  
The shutter of the camera closes on Sean darting through a debris field with grenades detonating all around him.  
  
  
  
TBC


	13. Picture 28 to 31

**At the Turning of Tides**  
(a very dark fic by [](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/profile)[ **j_flattermann**](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/))

word count: 1,249  
rating: NC-17 for violence and no happy ending  
Disclaimer: Pure Fiction. Brainchild of j_flattermann  
Story started in my second journal   [](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/profile)[ **siritigram59**](http://siritigram59.livejournal.com/) riginally but was taken back to this journal for convenience.

Please re-visit   [word picture 10 - 11](http://j-flattermann.livejournal.com/228620.html) o view another of   [](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/profile)[ **raven22372**](http://raven22372.livejournal.com/)'s amazing artworks which I just have added.

**WARNING: NO HAPPY END! As announced throughout A VERY DARK FIC! The boys demanded this ending and were not to be swayed. Sorry!**

 

 

Word Picture 28

 

Slowly the camera shutter opens revealing Viggo cleaning a machine gun, oil can and rags lying in his reach on the table of the farmhouse kitchen. The door opens and Karl enters he too is carrying a gun.  
“In a minute.” Viggo says grinning and adds, “Pour yourself a coffee. Just made a fresh one, give me one too while you’re at it.”

Karl returns to the table with both mugs with the steaming hot content. He sits down, leaning his gun to the next chair.

“Never thought,” he says between two sips, “that I ever would carry a gun to kill people. I, who have trained to be a doctor and to safe live.”

“See it this way,” Viggo replies, “with that gun you are going to safe lives as well. Ours.”

They are falling quiet for a moment and Viggo busies himself putting his gun back together.

 

 

“How long do you think we can hold up, Vig?"

The older one shrugs.

“We are lucky to have held up so far. Depends when they are running out of patience adn bring in the big guns.” Viggo replies after having given it some thought.

“So not long, then.” Karl sighs. “I sometimes wonder ...”

He starts, hesitates and then sighs deeply.

“I still have the feeling that my brother and your cousins are still alive, Vig.” Karl finally says.

Viggo doesn’t respond at first.

“Do you think they’re caught up in this too?” Karl asks and Viggo shrugs.

“Most likely. Don’t you think so?”

The shutter closes on Karl shrugging.

 

 

 

  
Word Picture 29

 

 

As the shutter of the camera opens a vast field of debris is revealed.

A small dot appears and disappears of sight between the rubble.

The camera zooms in and Sean’s figure takes shape as he rushes on, ducks and hides. He reaches an upright standing wall of a ruined building, which is only held up because of two steal beams.

Sean turns around and waves back where between large blocks of debris two heads pop up.

 

 

Billy and Dom crawl over the blocks and in a zigzag fashion make their way towards Sean in the same duck for cover, dart further style as has been used by Sean earlier.

The cousins arrive at Sean’s position out of breath and with a few chafes on their limps.

“That was easier than I thought.” Billy jokes still out of breath.

Sean chuckles as Dom shakes his head.

“You’re crazy, coz. Mad as a hatter.” He splutters.

“Did you find the entrance then?” Billy asks ignoring Dom’s remark

As reward Dom boxes his arms.

“Stop it, boys. You’ll need your strength for the next bit.” Sean cautions.

“As before, I go first. You come after.” He concludes.

He then crouches down as he crawls over some bigger blocks of debris and then keeping his head low runs from boulder to boulder always taking cover when one of the grenades explodes near by.

 

 

The routine of before repeats itself as he reaches the next sheltered position. Sean looks out if he’s still in the right direction. Only a few yards are now lying between him and the hidden entrance of the underground city.

Another check of the current situation and he waves Billy and Dom to come over

When the cousins arrive, Sean points out ahead. “There, see it? That’s the entrance. We’re almost there."

Then Sean sprints the last few yards until he arrives where he believes the entrance must be. He searches around for a while and then smiles, for even though the entrance is blocked up, he knows that with Billy and Dom’s help they can get rid of the blockage.

 

 

Waiting for the volley of grenade fire to die down a bit, he get up and motions the two to come over and stands staring as he finds Billy and Dom having left the sheltered position standing up unprotected, staring past him into the distance.

He turns around to see what they are staring at as he suddenly feels the ground shaking under his feet.

Sean turns again seeing Dom and Billy running towards him.

“NO!” He shouts and waves at the two. “RUN! RUN AWAY!” He bellows over the deep growl of the shaking ground and the shutter snaps close.

 

 

 

 

 

Word Picture 30

 

 

The camera shutter opens showing Doctor Mark Ferguson in the OR closing a patient’s wound with the last few stitches. Craig is standing opposite handing him the sterilized instruments he calls out for.

Further behind Craig in the separated scrubbing-in booth Dave operates the sterilizer for the next set of instruments to be ready when needed.

 

 

Just then Craig waves for Dave to come over. “Bring new gloves and a fresh set of instruments Dave. Then take this one out."

Dave brings what he’s been asked to and hands all over to Craig who helps Mark into a fresh set of gloves.

Dave wheels the patient out of the OR but stops short right behind the door and pales significantly.

 

 

Outside in the corridor on another bloodied stretcher lies Karl badly wounded. Viggo shaking violently stands beside the wheeled stretcher, himself bleeding from a head wound.

Dave calls for nurse Jake to take the freshly operated patient and take him into the recovery.

Dave then helps Craig to bring Karl into the OR and after that’s done sees to Viggo who has followed into the operating theatre as well.

Dave waves Viggo over, grabs him by the arm and leads him into the scrub-in area. On their way Dave helps himself to some fresh bandages.

As he and Viggo reaches the scrub-in booth, Dave urges Viggo to sit down and starts cleaning and dressing the wound on VIggo’s forehead.

 

 

“Will he make it? Karl?” Viggo asks clearly disorientated and shaken.

Dave tries a smile.

“Mark is a bloody good doctor. I think he will sow him together again. Did it once before, remember.” He tries to pacify Viggo.

The room suddenly vibrates and like a huge wave light is streaming in through the corridors on the way smashing glass windows, dislodging steel doors.

The people in the hospital ward light up like cinder.

The camera shutter closes as one room one after the other lights up and the air flitters with the tremendous heat.

 

 

 

  
Word Picture 31

 

 

One more time the camera shutter opens at a shaking world with the ground folding up in waves until the ground, debris and all rises up to the size of a thirty story skyscraper. On it’s way it pushes compressed air in front which reaches the strength of a tornado gale. The wind swipes Sean off his feet and as if he weights nothing more like a dried leaf throws him against one of the upstanding boulders, crushing several of Sean’s bones and his ribs.

 

 

Then the wind reaches Billy and Dom picking them up and flinging them several yards through the air over the debris field until their bodies are caught by a steel pillar piercing through them so that their bodies hang like crucified.

  
The ground break up and out of the cracks streams a bright light.

Before a wave of boiling hot air reaches Sean he sees the mushroomed shaped cloud of an atomic explosion towering over the place that once was the underground city.

Then the heat hits him.

  
The camera shutter melts into a half shut position, whilst the casing is forming a pool.

 

  
  
  
THE END


End file.
